[vlc-devel] (java) bindings license

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Le Thursday 13 March 2008 15:53:03 Filippo Carone, vous avez écrit :
> 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?

libvlc-control is unarguably a derived work of libvlc.
Relicensing libvlc-control _alone_ under LGPL might be do-able, but any 
distribution thereof will still fall under GPL anyway, until/unless libvlc as 
a whole is relicensed.

> 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.

As far as I know, compile-time or run-time dependency makes no difference in 
term of being a derivative in a copyright sense.

> 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.

Looks like an attempt to work-around the distribution requirements of the 
license. This is probably very shaky legally speaking.

> 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?

It is not a violation until it's proven, but this looks suspicious to me.

-- 
Rémi Denis-Courmont