GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 149102
gstreamer license problems
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
I notice the following problems with various gstreamer plugin licenses: * auparse says it is GPL when you run gst-inspect, but the code is all LGPL. * gstidct plugin says it is LGPL when you run gst-inspect, but the code for this plugin contains one file that uses the GPL license. * gstvideo plugin says it is LGPL when you run gst-inspect, but the code for this plugin contains a file under the GPL license. * texoverlay claims to be GPL, though the code all looks LGPL to me. * monoscope claims to be GPL, though the code all looks LGPL to me. * rtp claims to be LGPL, though it seems to contain GPL'ed code. I suspect that most of these problems are simply that gst-inspect needs to display the right value. However, I think it is probably a more serious problem that gstidct and gstvideo use GPL'ed code and that these plugins are needed for the gstreamer framework to work properly. Also, another problem is that there is some inconsistancy regarding plugins that are LGPL'ed but that depend on GPL'ed libraries. It seems that some plugins mark themselves as GPL in this case, and others mark themselves as LGPL. Which way is correct? I'll highlight which plugins have problems once that is settled.
gstvideo is almost fully written by me, so I can assure you that it's all LGPL. Isn't the license header in the source file just wrong?
auparse says LGPL now, so that is fixed. textoverlay says LGPL now so that is fixed. gstvideo says LGPL so that is fixed. Monoscope contains lots of files under the GPL, so that is GPL. Mailed all the authors of monoscope asking for a relicensing permisssion. rtp plugin has been removed from CVS since it never worked. gstidtc seems to be LGPL or a BSD'sh MPEG group license. When I get a reply from the Monoscope people I close this as fixed.
It seems reasonable to close this bug once the Monoscope issue has been resolved. Have the files in the gstidtc, and gstvideo that had GPL headers been fixed so they now contain LGPL headers? In order to do this, of course, the author would have to agree to change the license (or agree that the GPL license was put there incorrectly and that an LGPL license was actually intended).
Ok, Monoscope is now resolved. I checked the headers for gstvideo and gstidtc and they seemed ok to me, so unless I manage to look in the wrong place they should say LGPL. I am closing this bug. Please reopen or open new if there are any other license issues around.
Thank you for taking the time to resolve this issue. I think it is a great thing that the license issues in GStreamer are now sorted out. I know it has been a long and tedious task to coordinate fixing this problem, but it definately makes it easier to make use of GStreamer in Operating Systems like Solaris.