[gst-devel] gstreamer cleanup

[Thomas Vander Stichele]

> > Well, the code, yes. External libraries that we "host" inside our tree
> > are "preferrably" LGPL, and should be moved to gst-libs/ext/<name>/,
> > imo. This goes for modplug, monkeyaudio (if we keep that one at all),
> > and loads of others that are currently forked into our tree unnicely.
> >
> External libraries that we host MUST be at least GPL compatible or go into
> a different module. That is to allow distributions to easily build source
> RPMs from the tarballs without thinking about what to remove.
> I'd prefer if it where LGPL compatible though.
> 
> That said modplug is public domain and can easily stay where it is (in
> gst/modplug/modplug), ffmpeg is LGPL and is ok, too. monkeyaudio is
> proprietary and may not even be shipped by us. So it needs to be removed
> to somewhere else.

I think we should also move out all code/plugins that *might* be 
encumbered.  FFmpeg is one of them, I'm not sure about monkeyaudio but it 
might be too due to the weird license.  I think our core gst-plugins 
should only contain undisputably unencumbered stuff.

I mean, if I write some code that decodes and encodes some proprietary 
patented format, call the code LGPL, and get it supported in GStreamer, 
it's not clear to me if "GStreamer" is liable for my wrong licensing.

Also, distributors have clearly stated that they want tarballs that 
contain completely free/unpatented code without licensing issues, 
separated from the questionable stuff.

Let's not do this hastily, but discuss it properly, preferably with an 
exhaustive list of plugins/dirs and what's going to happen with them.

Thomas


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