[pulseaudio-tickets] [Bug 41822] New: PulseAudio LICENSE file is wrong or misleading about GPL/LGPL

[bugzilla-daemon at freedesktop.org]

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=41822

           Summary: PulseAudio LICENSE file is wrong or misleading about
                    GPL/LGPL
           Product: PulseAudio
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: Solaris
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: medium
         Component: misc
        AssignedTo: pulseaudio-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
        ReportedBy: brian.cameron at oracle.com
         QAContact: pulseaudio-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
                CC: lennart at poettering.net


As has been discussed in bug #41539, the LICENSE file in PulseAudio says this:

---

All PulseAudio source files are licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public
License. (see file LGPL for details)

However, the server side links to the GPL-only library 'libsamplerate' which
practically downgrades the license of the server part to GPL (see file GPL for
details), exercising section 3 of the LGPL.

Hence you should treat the client library ('libpulse') of PulseAudio as being
LGPL licensed and the server part ('libpulsecore') as being GPL licensed. Since
the PulseAudio daemon and the modules link to 'libpulsecore' they are of course
also GPL licensed.

---

However, in PulseAudio 1.0, libpulsecore is now linked against libpulsecommon
and anything that uses libpulse.  For example, anything that uses the GStreamer
PulseAudio plugin now links against libpulsecore and libsamplerate.

According to Tanu Kaskinen in bug #41539, only the server still actually uses
libsamplerate, but it is questionable whether the fact that programs link
against the same library that links against GPL libsamplerate affects the
license of client programs.

The LICENSE file, at any rate, is clearly wrong and should be updated to
provide more accurate information so that people building it can make a
decision for themselves how to build PulseAudio.

It seems like there are a couple of reasonable solutions to this issue:

1) According to Tanu, the speex resampler also works.  Perhaps it is time to
drop support for libsamplerate and instead favor the speex resampler, which
avoids any licensing issues and makes PulseAudio more cleanly LGPL.

2) Fix the server so that it links against libsamplerate in a way that does not
also cause libraries used by clients to link against a library that links
against libsamplerate.

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