I am actually quite curious, but I was reading through the GPL license related to patents, and I am not sure whether XVID itself is itself breaking the GPL license. I am not an expert and maybe someone else is, but I am quite curious here.
The reason is simple, unlike other codecs MPEG-4 visual is governed by several patents which are not royalty free (see M4IF and MPEGLA). Has XVID ever licensed these? GPL clearly states that if you have not, the software should have never been made available (see section 7 of GPL).
I hope I am wrong, but also what is the intend of XVID people here? Is it to try and make money from this? If so, who are also the clear copyright owners? Does also implementing someone else's idea (finding an article from the internet, a paper, or whatever), make someone the copyright owner? And honesty speaking XVID is full of such things (see two pass, rate control, filtering, motion estimation etc). I think there were several people who have also contributed in the development of XVID (through code but also through ideas), and having just the moderators claiming ownership and requesting money, would also somehow be a bit bad as well.
It would sound to me as if some people are saying to everyone, "Hey guys, come and work on this great software, it is for free at least for now, but when it works we will come and sell it and make profit out of it but you will make nothing". Is that what GPL license is for?
I am certainly not trying to play the devil's advocate (SigmaDesigns was clearly wrong copying anyone's software and in one way or another they should feel the consequences), but I am not completely sure XVID is 100% right either. If the goal is for some people to make a profit out of this then this is truly wrong. I also quite fear that this (considering patent infringements) could come and hunt everyone involved as well.
Slashdot Mirror
I am actually quite curious, but I was reading through the GPL license related to patents, and I am not sure whether XVID itself is itself breaking the GPL license. I am not an expert and maybe someone else is, but I am quite curious here. The reason is simple, unlike other codecs MPEG-4 visual is governed by several patents which are not royalty free (see M4IF and MPEGLA). Has XVID ever licensed these? GPL clearly states that if you have not, the software should have never been made available (see section 7 of GPL). I hope I am wrong, but also what is the intend of XVID people here? Is it to try and make money from this? If so, who are also the clear copyright owners? Does also implementing someone else's idea (finding an article from the internet, a paper, or whatever), make someone the copyright owner? And honesty speaking XVID is full of such things (see two pass, rate control, filtering, motion estimation etc). I think there were several people who have also contributed in the development of XVID (through code but also through ideas), and having just the moderators claiming ownership and requesting money, would also somehow be a bit bad as well. It would sound to me as if some people are saying to everyone, "Hey guys, come and work on this great software, it is for free at least for now, but when it works we will come and sell it and make profit out of it but you will make nothing". Is that what GPL license is for? I am certainly not trying to play the devil's advocate (SigmaDesigns was clearly wrong copying anyone's software and in one way or another they should feel the consequences), but I am not completely sure XVID is 100% right either. If the goal is for some people to make a profit out of this then this is truly wrong. I also quite fear that this (considering patent infringements) could come and hunt everyone involved as well.