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Enviado por lap4fsf el Dom, 05/03/2015 - 16:24.

Do Fluendo EULA violate freedom to freely redistribute the program?

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Dom, 05/03/2015 - 16:24
lap4fsf
lap4fsf
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se unió: 10/12/2014

Trisquel's software repository hosts following Fluendo mp3 decoder plugins:-

[1] gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
[2] gstreamer1.0-fluendo-mp3

According to Fedora, although Fluendo plugin is free and open source software, it is not freely redistributable because of its licensing terms[3].

Here is Fluendo's EULA (End User License Agreement), which I obtained from their website[4].

[3] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Installing_the_Fluendo_MP3_plugin
[4] http://www.fluendo.com/static/documents/Fluendo-EULA-usa.pdf

Is it true that Fluendo EULA violate freedom to freely redistribute the program?

Superior
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Lun, 05/04/2015 - 01:46
#1
Legimet
Legimet
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se unió: 12/10/2013

The Fluendo EULA is for some different software. The packages in the repo are under the MIT or Expat license. The copyright files do refer to some sample code which is "INTEL CORPORATION PROPRIETARY INFORMATION" but this is stripped from the packages by Debian since it is non-free.

The reason Fedora doesn't include these packages is patents. Trisquel's policy is not to recognize software patents.

EDIT: It seems that the EULA applies to the binary plugin distributed by Fluendo. Of course, since Trisquel uses packages built from the (free) source, it doesn't apply.

Superior
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Lun, 05/04/2015 - 04:19
#2
lap4fsf
lap4fsf
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Thank you, Legimet for your timely reply.

» Trisquel's policy is not to recognize software patents.

Out, out, damned software patent! :)

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Lun, 05/04/2015 - 14:00
#3
Mzee
Mzee
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Wikipedia says that "[t]he various MP3-related patents expire on dates ranging from 2007 to 2017 in the U.S". If that really is the case, this shouldn't be a problem anymore for Fedora in 2018. Just three more years to go for them.

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Lun, 05/04/2015 - 23:07
#4
tomlukeywood
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se unió: 12/05/2014

i looked up the mpeg-2 patents and aparently the last one expired in April 1st 2015

is mpeg-2 now a libre codec?

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Lun, 05/04/2015 - 23:28
#5
Legimet
Legimet
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se unió: 12/10/2013

A better word than libre would be unencumbered. There are libre codecs for all of these formats, but the formats are encumbered.

Anyway, according to this page: http://www.osnews.com/story/24954/US_Patent_Expiration_for_MP3_MPEG-2_H_264/ the last patent for MPEG-2 expires in 2018. So 3 more years.

EDIT: That's in the US. I don't know about other countries.

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