[vlc-devel] [vlc-commits] Add a new aac audio encoder module based on the fdkaac library. It works correctly up to 5. 1 as the current version of the library has problems with 7.1.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

On Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:39:10 +0200, Jean-Baptiste Kempf <jb at videolan.org>
wrote:
> On 26 Oct, Rafaël Carré wrote :
>> Do we need a --enable-nonfree configure option to enable it, just
>> like libav/ffmpeg do ?
> 
> The module is disabled by default (at my request), because of this.
> Morever, Google claims it is AOSP compatible, hence GPLv3 compatible...

I don't know what Google claims, but:

| 3. Grant of Patent License.
| Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Contributor
| hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge,
| royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this section) patent
| license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and
| otherwise transfer the Work, where such license applies only to those
| patent claims licensable by such Contributor that are necessarily
| infringed by their Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their
| Contribution(s) with the Work to which such Contribution(s) was
| submitted.
(Apache License)

...reads very much contradictory to:

| 3. NO PATENT LICENSE
|
| NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED LICENSES TO ANY PATENT CLAIMS, including without
| limitation the patents of Fraunhofer, ARE GRANTED BY THIS SOFTWARE
| LICENSE.
(FDK AAC license)

Also, the license forbids charging, even for modifications. As far as I
know, that contradicts any version of the GPL:

| You may not charge copyright license fees for anyone to use, copy or
| distribute the FDK AAC Codec software or your modifications thereto.
(FDK AAC license)

Presumably, Google claims that FDK AAC can be used on Android, but *not*
the software can be relicensed under ASF License. 

-- 
Rémi Denis-Courmont
Sent from my collocated server