[vlc-devel] close source plugin for vlc

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Le Thursday 24 April 2008 22:51:07 Michael Gao, vous avez écrit :
> A bit more background info on this part for those who do not know yet,
>
> - Neuros is looking to port VLC to next-gen OSD (see below signature
> link for details), a device based on TI Davinci dual core (ARM + DSP)
> processor.
>
> - Neuros project is under GPLv2, however the video codec running on DSP
> is not, nor is the ARM side codec supporting code (so called Codec
> Engine). So in a nutshell, I am looking at a VLC plugin structured in
> the following way,
>
> Neuros-VLC-Plugin    (NVP)   --- license TBD
>
> TI Codec Engine Lib  (TCEL)  --- proprietary binary
>
> DSP side video Codec         --- proprietary binary
>
> - NVP uses VLC/LibVLC plugins API for sure, also it uses TCEL APIs in
> order to fulfill the codec plugin functionality (which then eventually
> routes data back and forth with DSP side Codec). If we ship LGPLed NVP,
> and also proprietary TCEL, would that be ok with VLC?

IMHO, TCEL looks like it is part of the operating system, as any other 
hardware programming interface ought to be. There is no restriction on using 
the OS components. Otherwise GPL would not run on Windows or OSX. If I see a 
potential licensing grey area, it's with the Linux kernel (assuming TCEL 
needs some kernelland parts), rather than with VLC.

Personal opinion anyway.

-- 
Rémi Denis-Courmont
http://www.remlab.net/