GStreamer's MP3 for Linux: Thanks, but no thanks. [LWN.net]

GStreamer's MP3 for Linux: Thanks, but no thanks.

Posted Jan 2, 2006 22:47 UTC (Mon) by piman (subscriber, #8957)
In reply to: GStreamer's MP3 for Linux: Thanks, but no thanks. by jdub
Parent article: GStreamer's MP3 for Linux

> MAD has a serious problem: Look at its license (GPL), then read section 7 of it. Bad news for everyone.

Of course, most MP3-playing software is also under the GPL. Most useful software on GNU/Linux is under the GPL, period. So regardless of this plugin's license, if you distribute this plugin with software the end result is probably going to be under the GPL.

Jon mentioned this in the article -- Rhythmbox has no license exception yet, and I'm fairly sure Muine doesn't either. I'm less sure about amaroK, but at least its debian/copyright file doesn't have an exception.

So you can't actually ship the plugin with any of the major GStreamer-based music players. It solves nothing.

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GStreamer's MP3 for Linux: Thanks, but no thanks.

Posted Jan 2, 2006 23:07 UTC (Mon) by jdub (subscriber, #27) [Link]

Sure, no argument: You can't distribute the plugin with a GPL user of it. That puts the responsibility on users - and they can do whatever they wish, because they're not distributing it. So even with GPL software on top, the plugin has a good use case, which it solves legally and well.

MAD being licensed under the GPL is another story: It is incompatible with itself and not distributable at all. Read section 7.