[x264-devel] Re: Legal Status

[Alex Izvorski]

Farooq,

I recommend you talk to a good intellectual propery attorney who can
explain "derivative work".  The short answer is:  any modifications
belong to whoever wrote them, but at the same time the original that
they are inextricably a part of belongs to whoever wrote that as well...
and what you can do with the combination of the two (the "derivative
work") is just whatever both authors will permit you (and if their terms
disagree, quite possibly the answer is "nothing").

Since x264 is distributed under the GPL, you can do whatever you want
with it, but if you *distribute* it, or a modified version, or a larger
program that incorporates it, the *complete* source code for that *must*
be licensed also under the GPL and distributed with it.  The GPL
contains a more thorough (and authoritative) description of the terms so
you should read that (and again: talk to an attorney who specializes in
open-source licenses).

Since Tom Jacobs mentioned MPEG-LA, let me just say a word about that:
the H264 standard incorporates a number of patents.  In order to get
them adopted as part of the standard, the patent-holders had to agree to
license them under "fair and nondiscriminatory" terms to everyone.
MPEG-LA handles the actual licensing on their behalf.  You definitely
need a patent license for a number of things you might use x264 for (not
for everything, I believe a number of small or non-commercial uses have
an automatic exemption, but for commercial use you probably need a
license).  However (and this is an extremely important and possibly
confusing point) the patent license for H264 is *completely separate*
from the copyright license for x264.  You need both; you need to comply
with the terms of both; if one says you can do something and the other
says you can't, then you can't.

Lastly, a word of warning: open source projects generally have an
excellent track record of catching and dealing with people who break the
license terms.  The perception may be that "who cares, it's free
anyway"... but people can get downright fanatical about it when you
violate open-source licenses.  If you follow the rules and play nice,
you can freely use this incredible software for all kinds of things,
even commercially.  But you do have to follow the rules.  Asking on the
mailing list is an excellent first step ;)

Hope that clears things up.

Regards,
--Alex

On Fri, 2006-08-18 at 03:02 -0700, farooq Ahmad wrote:
> What will be the legal status of companies that just modify naming 
> conventions for variables as well as functions but keep similar code 
> structure? Will that code be considered their proprietary implementation? 
> What are the licensing issues in using x264 current implementation.
> 
> Regards
> The Video Genie
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
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