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Mplayer Charges License Violation

Posted by michael on from the showing-feelings-of-an-almost-human-nature dept.

Several people have submitted stories about the author of Mplayer accusing Warpvision of, err, "borrowing" their code for Warpvision's OS/2 player. I have two reactions - one, someone still uses OS/2? And two, something about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery...Update from CD: Hold on there, everyone. I downloaded the WarpVision source and lo and behold the GPL is there in all its free software glory. I think Mplayer spoke too soon, too rashly, or alternatively, WarpVision was just too slow to update thier site. I'd love to hear both sides of this before we all freak out. Further Info: It was pointed out to me (CD) that the MPlayer program itself is not Open Source software (it calls itself Basically GPL, which, BTW, hasn't been approved by the OSI), so in the end this might just be proprietary software piracy. (Yawn)

5 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. GPL issues by peter_gzowski · · Score: 4, Informative

    The update to this story mentions that everything's ok because the WarpVision code has the GPL, but the Mplayer author contends that Mplayer is not GPL, hence the following quote from the Mplayer homepage:

    They also claim to be GPL. They aren't because MPlayer that they modified, also isn't GPL. It has its own license. So that's another lie.

    --
    "Now gluttony and exploitation serves eight!" - TV's Frank
    1. Re:GPL issues by Vox · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, they say their code is GPL, but some stuff they include (codecs and other things, I'd guess...haven't checked the whole thing) are not under GPL...that's why they get pissed off whenever somebody posts binaries of MPlayer...according to them, some of the code can't be legally distributed as binaries...that's why they say the code is basically GPL (and not Basically GPL as in a name of a license, but as in "mostly GPL").

      ./ story needs yet another clarification.

      Vox

      --
      Pain is the gift of the gods, and I'm the one they chose as their messanger...
  2. Re:MPlayer/GPL love/hate relationship by beable · · Score: 5, Informative

    To follow up, there are HEAPS of files in MPlayer which were released under the GPL. I can't see how the MPlayer authors can possibly not release MPlayer under the GPL.

    Files which contain a GPL Licence statement in MPlayer:

    grep -rn "General Public License" *|cut -f 1 -d :|sort |uniq

    ac3-iec958.c
    drivers/3dfx.h
    libac3/ac3.h
    libac3/ac3_internal.h
    libac3/bit_allocate.c
    libac3/bit_allocate.h
    libac3/bitstream.c
    libac3/bitstream.h
    libac3/coeff.c
    libac3/coeff.h
    libac3/crc.c
    libac3/crc.h
    libac3/debug.c
    libac3/debug.h
    libac3/decode.c
    libac3/decode.h
    libac3/dither.c
    libac3/dither.h
    libac3/downmix/downmix_3dnow.S
    libac3/downmix/downmix.c
    libac3/downmix/downmix_kni.S
    libac3/downmix.h
    libac3/exponent.c
    libac3/exponent.h
    libac3/imdct.c
    libac3/imdct.h
    libac3/mmx/imdct_3dnow.c
    libac3/mmx/imdct512_kni.S
    libac3/mmx/imdct_kni.c
    libac3/mmx/rematrix_3dnow.c
    libac3/mmx/srfft_3dnow.c
    libac3/mmx/srfft_kni_c.c
    libac3/mmx/srfft_kni.S
    libac3/mmx/srfftp_3dnow.h
    libac3/parse.c
    libac3/parse.h
    libac3/rematrix.c
    libac3/rematrix.h
    libac3/sanity_check.c
    libac3/sanity_check.h
    libac3/srfft.c
    libac3/srfft.h
    libac3/srfftp.h
    libac3/stats.c
    libac3/stats.h
    libmpeg2/attributes.h
    libmpeg2/header.c
    libmpeg2/idct.c
    libmpeg2/idct_mlib.c
    libmpeg2/idct_mmx.c
    libmpeg2/mm_accel.h
    libmpeg2/mmx.h
    libmpeg2/motion_comp.c
    libmpeg2/motion_comp_mlib.c
    libmpeg2/motion_comp_mmx.c
    libmpeg2/mpeg2.h
    libmpeg2/mpeg2_internal.h
    libmpeg2/slice.c
    libmpeg2/sse.h
    libmpeg2/stats.c
    libmpeg2/vlc.h
    libvo/video_out.c
    libvo/video_out_internal.h
    libvo/vo_3dfx.c
    libvo/vo_mga.c
    libvo/vo_null.c
    libvo/vo_sdl.c
    libvo/vo_syncfb.c
    libvo/vo_xmga.c
    libvo/yuv2rgb.c
    libvo/yuv2rgb.h
    libvo/yuv2rgb_mlib.c
    libvo/yuv2rgb_mmx.c
    opendivx/idct_c.c
    opendivx/idct_mmx.c
    TOOLS/mp.pl
    TVout/fbset/modeline2fb

    Please explain?

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    ...
  3. Its quite a convoluted story.... by gagravarr · · Score: 4, Informative

    Alas the WarpVision mailing list isn't archived anywhere that I know of, but I'll do my best to sumarise:

    Someone noticed that WarpVision had changed a lot between two versions, doing some things better but some no longer. Someone else then noticed that the debug output was much like that of MPlayer

    At that point, the MPlayer guys were alearted, and decided that it was very likely that WarpVision was an uncredited port of MPlater to OS/2, and also a closed source one. They mailed the WarpVision Developers, and asked what was up.

    The WarpVision guys initially played dum, then said they had only used a tiny bit of code and would release the source later.

    Tempers flared, and a lot of discussion went on between the WarpVision guys and the MPlayer guys. In the end, the WarpVision developers credited MPlayer, and released the source.

    Now, the flame is over who was in the wrong, who needs to apologise, and if the projects should remain seperate, or if the WarpVision changes should go into the offical MPlayer tree. The issue isn't resolved, but the GPL violation is

    --
    This post will enter the public domain 70 years after my death, unless Disney buys another extension.
  4. MPlayer Licensing Confusion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    From the MPlayer home page, it seems the MPlayer authors are mostly concerned about WarpVision stealing credit. They make a good case for that having happened.

    Their claims about license violations seems confused at best. They claim MPlayer is released under its own license, but I found no such license in the source code for MPlayer 0.5. The closest I found is the following quote in the documentation:

    MPlayer would be distributable under the terms of the
    GNU GPL, but distributing binary packages is forbidden

    Of course, the GPL forbids imposing such conditions on redistribution, so one must interpret this as saying that MPlayer is not distributable under the GPL, and since there is no other license supplied, must one understand MPlayer is not distributable at all?

    Additionally, MPlayer uses code that is under the GPL, notably the MGA video drivers and some of the monitor frequency synchronization drivers. Thus either MPlayer is GPL or MPlayer violates the GPL or copyright laws.

    Given MPlayer's licensing confusion, I'm not surprised WarpVision treated it as GPL. IMHO, that's the most reasonable interpretation that can be made of the situation. Regardless of licensing, of course, WarpVision should have more accurately and prominently advertised the debt it owed to MPlayer.

    By the way, the vitriolic and childish attitude of the MPlayer author on this issue is yet another reminder of why it's a good idea to only use and contribute to really free software (which MPlayer apparently isn't)... I would hate to subject my use of a piece of software to the whims of such an apparently confused and aggressive person. And of course, I would hate to have such a person use code I wrote to impose their whims on others, which is why I use the GPL :-).