[Bf-committers] Quicktime License issue....

[Arne Schmitz]

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Am Donnerstag, 23. Januar 2003 13:16 schrieb Ton Roosendaal:
> So no GPL project uses apple quicktime?

MPlayer uses the Windows Quicktime DLLs. See http://www.mplayerhq.hu for more 
details. They don't link against them, but load them via a loader library 
based on WINE, as far as I remember.

But I don't think that the MPlayer code is very clean or easily adaptable to 
blender. :-) -- Apart from the legal aspect...

But in my opinion linking against closed source libraries is NOT prohibited by 
the GPL. Think about all the GPL Motif applications that existed before Motif 
became opensource. 
Also remember that there are GPL'ed Windows applications that are linked 
against MFC and stuff.
See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#WindowsRuntimeAndGPL

 The GPL only says that you yourself have to provide the sourcecode for your 
application upon request. This does not apply to the libraries you link 
against. The GPL also requires you to allow any and every modification to you 
program by others and that these modifications must also be accessible with 
source code, *if* you make them public. 
See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLRequireSourcePostedPublic

However if you link your own program with a GPL program (not LGPL), then you 
program also has to be GPL'ed.
See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#LinkingWithGPL

IANAL and these are only my 2¢, but I think that this might clear some things 
up.

Cheers,

	Arne


- -- 
Always knows the prospects
Learn to expect -- Nothing -- Nothing

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