Hi. I haven't been able to find a good contact for reporting legal issues involving libav, but I've encountered a developer selling your software in possible violation of the GPU/GPL license listed here as well as in the EULA of the package he is selling. The developer of VideoDownloadHelper, a popular addon for Firefox, has been selling an addon based on libav in order to provide dubiously-necessary "conversions" of video files e.g. Youtube clips. (Based on the fact that prior versions of his software, at least, did not require conversion, nor do competing addons.)
He is not claiming to charge a "distribution fee", but, rather, a *REGISTRATION FEE*. https://www.downloadhelper.net/convert.php He actually may be in violation of two parts of the GNU public license specified in the program he is selling, particularly Paragraphs 2(a) and 2(b): 2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions: a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change. b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License. Lastly, although he is not currently claiming that he will charge a subscription fee, he does have a product-activation system in place that validates his registration keys against installs over the internet. These are necessary for, and often a precursor to, a move towards subscription services, besides being standard DRM practice. This is not to say that he intends to violate that part of the GPL license, but it's something you should be aware of. He is limiting support to one year based on the fee, though. His software, VideoDownloadHelper, and the unregistered version of his converter (currently, ConvertHelper3.EXE), is readily available at addons.mozilla.com as well as his own website, http://www.downloadhelper.net. _______________________________________________ libav-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.libav.org/mailman/listinfo/libav-devel
