Re:How to Write a Video Player in Less Than 1000 Lines
by lmm on Tuesday March 08, 2016 @05:56AM
(#11244596)
But we're talking about LGPL, not GPL.
> Proprietary/MIT/BSD does not require every confidential intellectual property it touches to be made public.
A lot of proprietary libraries you can license have very onerous licensing terms; certainly much longer and more complex than the LGPL. E.g. the notice requirements that got MediaCoder into trouble are often exactly the same (that's why so many programs have "contains an implementation of the LZW algorithm" or "uses Bink video technology" or "built with the Unreal engine" or that Creative sound codec I've forgotten the name of, on their splash screens and in their about boxes). Heck, the advertising clause in the original (4-clause) BSD license is much more onerous than anything in the LGPL. Sure, the makers of those libraries don't say "we will give you free legal advice but only if you make your whole program open-source" - but that's because they won't offer you free legal advice at all, they expect you to understand and comply with the license you have from them. And you will often have to e.g. give them access to perform audits so that they can confirm you're complying with the license (and paying royalties correctly, if you're using a library you pay per-use royalties for).
The LGPL is less permissive than the MIT license, sure. But it's absurd to claim it's somehow less open source or more restricted than typical proprietary library licenses.
> Proprietary/MIT/BSD does not require every confidential intellectual property it touches to be made public.
A lot of proprietary libraries you can license have very onerous licensing terms; certainly much longer and more complex than the LGPL. E.g. the notice requirements that got MediaCoder into trouble are often exactly the same (that's why so many programs have "contains an implementation of the LZW algorithm" or "uses Bink video technology" or "built with the Unreal engine" or that Creative sound codec I've forgotten the name of, on their splash screens and in their about boxes). Heck, the advertising clause in the original (4-clause) BSD license is much more onerous than anything in the LGPL. Sure, the makers of those libraries don't say "we will give you free legal advice but only if you make your whole program open-source" - but that's because they won't offer you free legal advice at all, they expect you to understand and comply with the license you have from them. And you will often have to e.g. give them access to perform audits so that they can confirm you're complying with the license (and paying royalties correctly, if you're using a library you pay per-use royalties for).
The LGPL is less permissive than the MIT license, sure. But it's absurd to claim it's somehow less open source or more restricted than typical proprietary library licenses.