[vlc-devel] Plugins license compatibility

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

On Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:59:36 +0100, Rémi Denis-Courmont <remi at remlab.net>
wrote:
> It seems that some packagers are not paying due attention to licensing
> constraints when building VLC. VLC is distributed under GNU GPL version 2
> or later. However, some plugins depend on libraries that are licensed
> solely under (L)GPL version 2. Conversely, some plugins depend on
> libraries
> that are with GPL version 3, but not GPL version 2. To my understanding,
> you _CANNOT_ mix both categories in the same binary distribution.
> 
> I am not aware of any exhaustive list. Checking licenses is the job of
> packagers, not mine. But at least, we are aware of the following cases:
> 
> - taglib meta plugin:
>   taglib requires GPL version 2.
> 
> - dirac codec plugin:
>   dirac requires GPL version 2 (but schroedinger does not).

Sorry, this is incorrect. They are LGPLv2.1 libraries, so can be relicensed
under GPLv3 as per LGPLv2.1 paragraph 3.

> - access_smb access plugin (except on Windows):
>   libsmbclient requires GPL version 3 in recent versions.
> 
> - access_scp access plugin:
>   libssh requires GPL version 3 (due to BSD advertisement clause).

I meant non endorsement clause.

-- 
Rémi Denis-Courmont