[pulseaudio-discuss] License problem: LDAC codec & pulseaudio

[Pali Rohár]

Hello,

I would like to discuss about licence problems with usage of LDAC
encoder libldac in pulseaudio. LDAC is a codec used by some Sony
bluetooth headsets and it would be nice to have support for it after my
patch series for Modular API for A2DP codecs is merged.

There is only one released LDAC encoder. It is libldac which can be
found at: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/libldac/
It is licensed under Apache License Version 2.0.

If I understood correctly pulseaudio is licensed under LGPL v2.1 or
later with some exceptions when some optional GPL dependences are
enabled then server part is licensed under GPL v2 or later. So it can be
distributed under GPL v3, right? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

According to FSF https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#apache2
Apache License Version 2.0 is compatible with GPL v3, but is
incompatible with GPL v2.

So, would it be feasible to write LDAC specific code for pulseaudio
under GPL v3 license (in separate files) and make compile time option to
enable/disable GPL v3 LDAC support? When enabled it would mean that
compiled binary of puleaudio server and server modules are forced to be
distributed under GPL v3 and thanks to compatibility with Apache License
Version 2.0, it would be possible to use libdac library. When disabled
then it would be like before (without LDAC and with license like
before). Am I correct?

-- 
Pali Rohár
pali.rohar at gmail.com
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