On 09/05/13 23:27, Adam M. Costello wrote: > Fabian Greffrath <fab...@greffrath.com>: > >> Is fdk-aac finally the first *free* high-quality AAC encoder or is it >> just the next *non-free* one after FAAC? > > From what I've read, FAAC is not a high-quality AAC encoder. As far as > I know, fdk-aac is the only high-quality open-source AAC encoder. > > I don't know if fdk-aac is DFSG-free, or GPL-compatible, but even if > it's neither, Debian could still package it, right? There's also a > command-line tool, fdkaac, that uses it. >
Yes. If you are interested in packaging it, please go ahead. > Of course, the library would be much more useful if avconv could use it. > If libfdk-aac is GPL-incompatible, what does that imply? That avconv > must not require libfdk-aac to be present at runtime? Could it check > for the existence of libfdk-aac and dlopen() it if it's found? Would > that make them independent enough that their licenses wouldn't need to > be compatible? The thing is that libav (ffmpeg) is LGPL (not GPL). So, my understanding is that it shouldn't be a problem to use a third-party library (fdk-aac or whatever) even if this library is GPL-incompatible (or even proprietary). I tried to clarify this point with libav developers [1]. But the replies I got where not clear to me so I gave up. They seem to be more interested in improving the internal AAC encoder of libav. I still think that it shouldn't be any problem by linking libav with fdk-aac or any other library given the LGPL license of libav. But I am not a lawyer, maybe I'm wrong. > > It's a shame that various open-source licenses fight each other and thus > impede rather than promote the development of free software. > Yes. I agree. This whole incompatibility between open source licenses is a complete mess and a PITA for everybody. I was pushing to ensure that the copyleft-next license that Richard Fontana is creating address this specific point [2] Regards! -------- [1] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.libav.user/9395 [2] https://github.com/richardfontana/copyleft-next/issues/15
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