On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 05:34:34AM -0300, salsaman wrote: > Hi all, > I am the main developer/maintainer of LiVES (http://lives.sourceforge.net). > > I recently noticed the information about LiVES on this page: > http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageMaintainers/WishList#L-M > > The information give about LiVES is inaccurate/incorrect. First of all, > LiVES is not dependant on ffmpeg. As in, you can perfectly well build and > run the application without ffmpeg being present on either the build system > or the end user system. > > However, the ffmpeg libraries are recommended for end users, since LiVES > will make indirect use of them (via mplayer) for decoding some video > formats, and via mencoder for encoding some video formats. > > I fail to see the reason for this to be sufficient cause for crossing out > LiVES. A long time ago, ffmpeg contained some allegedly patented code (AAC > audio IIRC), however this code was removed from the core of ffmpeg at least > 5 years ago. However it seems that the FUD (and that is indeed what it is) > persists. Microsoft must be laughing hard at this one. > > If you don't believe me, then how is it that both ffmpeg and LiVES are in > debian testing and unstable ? Please check for yourselves, and contact the > debian legal team if you are still in doubt. > > It is particularly timely that I noticed this, as I would like to introduce > the new packager for LiVES in Fedora, Harry Rickards (harry@xxxxxxxxx). > Harry is also the point of contact between LiVES and the debian multimedia > team who are responsible for packaging LiVES for debian. > > I hope that you will correct the information on the wishlist page, stop > spreading (unintentional ?) FUD about ffmpeg, and most importantly give > Harry every assistance with the Fedora LiVES packages. You're woefully mistaken if you think all patent-encumbered code has been removed from ffmpeg. Debian doesn't have a singular US corporate entity backing it like Fedora does. Red Hat legal has been down this road, and there's no way ffmpeg can be in Fedora, due to the number of US patents that its pretty well guaranteed to infringe upon. This isn't an endorsement of patents, just a practical matter. There are multiple 3rd-party package repositories for Fedora that carry ffmpeg packages though, as well as a good amount of software that utilize ffmpeg (including LiVES in at least one of said repos, iirc). -- Jarod Wilson jarod@xxxxxxxxxx -- packaging mailing list packaging@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/packaging
