[vlc-devel] (java) bindings license

[Filippo Carone]

Hi everybody,
I know there are already some threads in our mailing list archive about 
the topic, and that some of us already have a strong opinion on this, 
but I'd like (and I try) to have more feedback on the topic.

VLC is released under the GPLv2 for the time being, and this is Good 
Thing. About two years ago within the VLC project, a new library, called 
libvlc-control, was started to make it possible to use VLC potential 
from external code. After the inception of libvlc-control, bindings to 
make this library available for other languages have been developed. By 
the way, before libvlc-control, VLC was already (and still is) available 
for use within browsers in form of Activex control and Mozilla plugin.

Going straight to the topic, the core question is, is it 
reasonable/possible for you to license bindings (java bindings, for what 
I am concerned) under a LGPL library? I'm asking you so, because I see 
the bindings much more as a library than an application. Speaking about 
the java bindings, vlc sources are not needed when you compile them, but 
only at runtime. If you have the java bindings jar and run it without 
having vlc installed on the computer, an exception will be thrown and 
I'm committing a change which asks the user to install vlc on the system 
to proceed.

Before closing the mail I point you to a LGPL library already 
encapsulating vlc as a player through the Activex:

http://djproject.cvs.sourceforge.net/djproject/DJNativeSwing/src/chrriis/dj/nativeswing/ui/JVLCPlayer.java?view=markup

Is this a violation?

Cheers,
Filippo