Ultimately, anyone answering this with anything other than "consult
your attorney" is... being misleading, probably.
However, in addition to that, I'll explain a bit:
mp3parse: This is in -ugly because it's related to mp3, which has
known patent issues. I expect a qualified patent attorney would be
able to tell you that it's actually fine.
asfdemux: Microsoft claims patents on aspects of the ASF format. I
have no idea if asfdemux infringes any of them; of the four plugins
you mention this is by far the most likely to be problematic.
aacparse, amrparse: like mp3parse, these relate to processing formats
that have known patent issues. Again I'd expect that a detailed
analysis by a patent attorney would most likely end up telling you
that these are fine from that perspective.
Mike
On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 4:54 PM, Dragoslav Mitrinovic
<fdm224 at motorola.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am looking for additional information on any known
> legal/distribution issues regarding use of mp3parse (mpegaudioparse)
> and asfdemux ?from the "ugly" plugins collection, and aacparse and
> amrparse from the "bad" collection.
>
> We are currently considering using these plugins in a product. We
> would respect the terms of LGPL of course, but are concerned about any
> additional known encumbrances.
>
> In particular, the documentation for the "ugly" collection specifies
> that "ugly" plugins may present distribution problems ("The license?on
> either the plug-ins or the supporting libraries might not be how we'd
> like. The code might be widely known to present patent problems.") I
> am interested in the specific reasons why mp3parse and asfdemux were
> placed into the "ugly" category, so we can evaluate and make the
> decision whether to use them.
>
> Also, are aacparse and amrparse merely of lesser quaility (and thus in
> "bad" collection), or are there additional distribution issues
> regarding those two plugins?
>
> Your help would be greatly appreciated.
> -Dragoslav Mitrinovic
>
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