[vlc-devel] Re: libdts (was Re: [Ffmpeg-devel] Patent Infrigement)

Rémi Denis-Courmont courmisch at via.ecp.fr
Sun Apr 10 23:49:33 CEST 2005


Le Vendredi 8 Avril 2005 10:52, Attila Kinali a écrit :
> I already offered to host libdts on the SUUG (www.suug.ch) server
> a while back. Though our (ie, Sam Hocevar, Thomas Graf and me)
> discussion ended with the agreement that we leave it for the
> moment to not further upset DTS to keep the door open for an
> amicable solution between DTS and ECP.

For now, the situation is : DTS acknowledged that the ECP stopped any 
form of public distribution of libdca (don't call it libdts!!!). Their 
lawyer says they're ready to negociate license for internal 
developments on the ECP campus.

Of course, it's not as if we (the students of ECP) cared about a such a 
license - we were not even involved in the developing libdca in the 
first place, only for hosting it on the VideoLAN project server. FYI, 
it is Gildas Bazin who implemented libdca and he's not a student here 
(countrary to what DTS believes).

It is our (the official VideoLAN project at the ECP) understanding that 
it is very unlikely that we'll get any kind of license that would allow 
us to provide libdca under any kind of GPL-compatible license. And 
that, should it be the case, it will take *LONG*. In other words, it 
won't happen.

As for the administration of the ECP, all they want is not be bothered 
by IP/legal issues. They probably couldn't care less if libdca is 
distributed from somewhere else so long as they (their IP addresses 
space) aren't liable in any way.

> If you want we can host libdts on our server including svn and
> mailinglists. It all depends on you.

We can keep the mailing lists. In fact, it's still running, and the 
archive is publicly available there : 
http://www.via.ecp.fr/via/ml/libdca-devel/

As for the SVN repository, Antoine Cellerier and I agreed, we'd leave up 
to Gildas to decide if he wants to move it. If he agrees, I can send a 
copy of the Subversion repository (*except* password stuff). I can also 
put a copy of the libdca-devel's mailbox archive for downaload if 
someone really wants it.

Le Samedi 9 Avril 2005 13:07, Diego Biurrun a écrit :
> How long ago was this? (...)

DTS noticed it only a few days after libdca initial public release which 
came at about the same time as the first release VLC media player 
including libdca. That was in early 2004. Things became hot as DTS 
hired a lawyer in France to sue our school. We stopped distribution of 
libdca at about time DTS patent was granted in E.U. (october 2004). 
Things have settled since then (December 2004) with their lawyer taking 
notice of our goodwill.

That is to say they are very serious about their IP rights. It is their 
primary business. Royalties are their source of income.

Le Samedi 9 Avril 2005 15:58, Derk-Jan Hartman a écrit :
> I guess we still won't be able to include libdca in VLC builds, but
> at least something is happening and we are sticking it to the MAN. :D

It's a VLC-specific issue - it's not very good at building of external 
modules from source. An alternative might be to make libdca some kind 
of dynamic library that can easily be dlopen'd or whatever.

-- 
Rémi Denis-Courmont
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