[x264-devel] Re: I want to know the license of x264

[Alex Izvorski]

Hello,

On Fri, 2006-12-01 at 21:05 +0900, tabler wrote:
> Dear who may it concern,
> 
> We develop the software for supporting e-learnning system in JAPAN
> 
> We are interest in using the X264 Video Codec.

I am very glad to hear of your interest.  I hope you build a kick-ass
app using x264.  You may be interested to know that x264 is already used
by a number of commercial ventures which have provided considerable
support to its development.

> We wanna support it the H264 format when user using the our software
> makes the avi file, at this time user will setup the X264 Video Codec
> himself, our software just encodes the avi file by using VFW.
> 
> In case, Do we have to pay it ?

x264 is covered by the GPL license.  In short, it is free to use,
modify, and redistribute in whatever way you want, provided that the
following conditions are met:

- you clearly identify that you are distributing it, its copyright, and
that it is covered by GPL

- you always distribute it, and any "derived work", under the GPL also
(with no additional conditions imposed)

- you always distribute it, and any "derived work", together with
complete source code (for the whole thing, including the rest of the
derived work, and including any modifications)

A "derived work" is something that includes x264.  In other words, a
program that links with libx264.a, includes x264.h and so forth is
definitely derived; a program that simply launches x264.exe is not. 

The GPL license text, and the GPL FAQ
(http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html) should answer most of your
questions.  Particularly have a look at the answers to:
"You have a GPL'ed program that I'd like to link with my code to build a
proprietary program. Does the fact that I link with your program mean I
have to GPL my program?"
"Can I release a non-free program that's designed to load a GPL-covered
plug-in?"

If you have any questions after reading the above, please feel free to
ask the list, we will attempt to answer them as best we can.

The question of licensing x264 under a license other than GPL has been
raised numerous times, and it is quite unlikely due to the number of
authors and the fact that all of them would have to agree, which many
have said they will not consider.  My guess is it could be done for a
*large* sum of money ;)

> If we do it, how much will we pay it?

Nothing ;)  However, source code contributions, or offers to pay or
contract for the development of specific features, are very welcome.

> If we just open the source of encoding module,  but should we pay?

Open sourcing (under GPL) just the encoder module may not be enough,
depending on how it interacts with the rest of your application.  Are
modules plugins?  Are they external programs?  Are they dynamically
loaded? etc...  You'd have to provide more details so we can help you
determine how you can do what you want.

> Please, let us know how much, to pay or not

Aside from the x264 license requirements, you should also consider that
you need a license to a number of H.264 patents.  Please have a look at
http://www.mpegla.com/avc/ .   Depending on the type and scale of your
application, you may qualify for an automatic patent license exemption.
Even if you do need to get it, it is generally not very expensive. 

> Thank you for your kind concern.
> 
>  
> 
> Best regards,
> 
>  
> 
> Dustin Park
> 

Regards,
--Alex

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