ffmpeg: Free Software's WMA decoder

mmu_man writes "This morning, after the usual spams, I got this from the ffmpeg-devel mailing list: Here it is, something we waited for long. Now we have a FreeSoftware (LGPL) WMA (Windows Media Audio) decoder. WMA is the highly proprietary audio codec M$ is pushing along with its user-locking tools like DRM. this will free us from the ugly DLL hacks required to play DivX until now. Note there isn't any encoder yet, but who would like to encode into WMA while we have better and more open solutions? With this new codec, ffmpeg really proves itself as the most complete audio/video grabbing, convertion and streaming solution, for Linux, but also FreeBSD, Windows and even BeOS. Note ffmpeg codecs are used in a lot of other FreeSoftware projects, like mplayer."

Comments

Why not MIT X license instead of GPL?

[Brett Glass]

By licensing the CODEC under the LGPL, the authors are preventing Microsoft's competitors from publishing improved versions that might give BillG a run for his money. If Microsoft is to face some real competition, it's best to empower its competitors. Why not use an MIT-ish license, as does Ogg Vorbis?

Re:Why not MIT X license instead of GPL?

[Brett Glass]

The trouble is that the LGPL cripples Microsoft's competitors too much. Under the terms of the LGPL, those competitors cannot offer unique value -- the key to survival in a crowded marketplace. What's more, they are subjected to a plethora of other awkward or downright onerous requirements. Most people haven't read the most recent version of the LGPL and so do not realize how many requirements have been added since Stallman rechristened the "Library GPL" the "Lesser GPL." (One example: A company that ships its product as binaries must provide linkable object code, as well as makefiles, etc. This is not only awkward; it makes reverse engineering of their code by competitors trivially easy.)

Complying with the "old" LGPL was sometimes difficult, because a commercial software vendor often had to partition code in awkward ways to avoid being forced to give away his or her hard work. But with the new one, LGPLed code is really anything but "free." It comes at great cost -- often an intolerable cost -- to the developer. Our small company (we're trying hard to compete with Microsoft) has stopped using LGPLed code for this reason.

It's time for a move toward truly free licensing -- the Python, X, Artistic, Apache, BSD, and similar licenses. Publishing source code alone won't end Microsoft's dominance. The only thing that will end it is facilitating competition from other companies who, right now, can't afford to compete with Microsoft.

Re:Quality "Enhancements"

[yelligsc]

Its offical, everyone:

Slashdot is now full of wannabe lamers.

I guess I need to get back to my job, then.

Scott.