[Fedora-packaging] Inaccurate information about LiVES package

[salsaman]

Please can you give an example of a patent which is violated in the *core*
of ffmpeg.

Salsaman.

http://lives.sourceforge.net
https://www.ohloh.net/accounts/salsaman



On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 11:08 AM, Jarod Wilson <jarod at redhat.com> wrote:

> On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 05:34:34AM -0300, salsaman wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > I am the main developer/maintainer of LiVES (
> http://lives.sourceforge.net).
> >
> > I recently noticed the information about LiVES on this page:
> > http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageMaintainers/WishList#L-M
> >
> > The information give about LiVES is inaccurate/incorrect. First of all,
> > LiVES is not dependant on ffmpeg. As in, you can perfectly well build and
> > run the application without ffmpeg being present on either the build
> system
> > or the end user system.
> >
> > However, the ffmpeg libraries are recommended for end users, since LiVES
> > will make indirect use of them (via mplayer) for decoding some video
> > formats, and via mencoder for encoding some video formats.
> >
> > I fail to see the reason for this to be sufficient cause for crossing out
> > LiVES. A long time ago, ffmpeg contained some allegedly patented code
> (AAC
> > audio IIRC), however this code was removed from the core of ffmpeg at
> least
> > 5 years ago. However it seems that the FUD (and that is indeed what it
> is)
> > persists. Microsoft must be laughing hard at this one.
> >
> > If you don't believe me, then how is it that both ffmpeg and LiVES are in
> > debian testing and unstable ? Please check for yourselves, and contact
> the
> > debian legal team if you are still in doubt.
> >
> > It is particularly timely that I noticed this, as I would like to
> introduce
> > the new packager for LiVES in Fedora, Harry Rickards (harry at linux.com).
> > Harry is also the point of contact between LiVES and the debian
> multimedia
> > team who are responsible for packaging LiVES for debian.
> >
> > I hope that you will correct the information on the wishlist page, stop
> > spreading (unintentional ?) FUD about ffmpeg, and most importantly give
> > Harry every assistance with the Fedora LiVES packages.
>
> You're woefully mistaken if you think all patent-encumbered code has been
> removed from ffmpeg. Debian doesn't have a singular US corporate entity
> backing it like Fedora does. Red Hat legal has been down this road, and
> there's no way ffmpeg can be in Fedora, due to the number of US patents
> that its pretty well guaranteed to infringe upon. This isn't an
> endorsement of patents, just a practical matter. There are multiple
> 3rd-party package repositories for Fedora that carry ffmpeg packages
> though, as well as a good amount of software that utilize ffmpeg
> (including LiVES in at least one of said repos, iirc).
>
> --
> Jarod Wilson
> jarod at redhat.com
>
> --
> packaging mailing list
> packaging at lists.fedoraproject.org
> https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/packaging
>
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