113 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
113 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
From fork-admin@xent.com Mon Aug 26 15:31:13 2002
|
|
Return-Path: <fork-admin@xent.com>
|
|
Delivered-To: yyyy@localhost.netnoteinc.com
|
|
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1])
|
|
by phobos.labs.netnoteinc.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 787FE47C80
|
|
for <jm@localhost>; Mon, 26 Aug 2002 10:25:23 -0400 (EDT)
|
|
Received: from phobos [127.0.0.1]
|
|
by localhost with IMAP (fetchmail-5.9.0)
|
|
for jm@localhost (single-drop); Mon, 26 Aug 2002 15:25:23 +0100 (IST)
|
|
Received: from xent.com ([64.161.22.236]) by dogma.slashnull.org
|
|
(8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g7NMWWZ10641 for <jm@jmason.org>;
|
|
Fri, 23 Aug 2002 23:32:33 +0100
|
|
Received: from lair.xent.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by xent.com (Postfix)
|
|
with ESMTP id 6C8922940AD; Fri, 23 Aug 2002 15:30:09 -0700 (PDT)
|
|
Delivered-To: fork@spamassassin.taint.org
|
|
Received: from crank.slack.net (slack.net [166.84.151.181]) by xent.com
|
|
(Postfix) with ESMTP id 62D44294099 for <fork@xent.com>; Fri,
|
|
23 Aug 2002 15:29:50 -0700 (PDT)
|
|
Received: by crank.slack.net (Postfix, from userid 596) id 7C7BB3EDA5;
|
|
Fri, 23 Aug 2002 18:33:37 -0400 (EDT)
|
|
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by crank.slack.net
|
|
(Postfix) with ESMTP id 7ADD23ED11; Fri, 23 Aug 2002 18:33:37 -0400 (EDT)
|
|
From: Tom <tomwhore@slack.net>
|
|
To: fork@spamassassin.taint.org
|
|
Cc: vox@mindvox.com
|
|
Subject: GPL limits put to a test
|
|
Message-Id: <Pine.BSO.4.44.0208231824140.16631-100000@crank.slack.net>
|
|
MIME-Version: 1.0
|
|
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
|
|
Sender: fork-admin@xent.com
|
|
Errors-To: fork-admin@xent.com
|
|
X-Beenthere: fork@spamassassin.taint.org
|
|
X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11
|
|
Precedence: bulk
|
|
List-Help: <mailto:fork-request@xent.com?subject=help>
|
|
List-Post: <mailto:fork@spamassassin.taint.org>
|
|
List-Subscribe: <http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork>, <mailto:fork-request@xent.com?subject=subscribe>
|
|
List-Id: Friends of Rohit Khare <fork.xent.com>
|
|
List-Unsubscribe: <http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork>,
|
|
<mailto:fork-request@xent.com?subject=unsubscribe>
|
|
List-Archive: <http://xent.com/pipermail/fork/>
|
|
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 18:33:37 -0400 (EDT)
|
|
|
|
|
|
XviD [1] is a project to make GPL divx codecs. Sigma Designs [1] is a
|
|
company looking to put out hardware to playback, amongst other things,
|
|
divx files. Problem is Sigma is using XviDs gpled code in ways not very
|
|
gpl. The results....XviD stops work on thier code and ask the users to
|
|
put preasure on Sigma to honor the GPL.
|
|
|
|
Some notes from other places....
|
|
|
|
>>From Doom9 [3]
|
|
"XviD development has been stopped! The Sigma Designs REALMagic MPEG-4
|
|
Video Codec contains wide portions of code taken from the XviD project.
|
|
Soon after the initial release of the REALMagic codec the XviD developers
|
|
have contacted Sigma and informed them about the GPL violation (for those
|
|
who don't know, XviD is distributed under the GNU Public License - GPL -
|
|
which demands that if you modify a GPL program you have to release it
|
|
under the GPL, which in this case means that the source code of the Sigma
|
|
codec must be freely available). Sigma promised to replace the stolen
|
|
code, but the new version of the codec which was released this month only
|
|
disguises the stolen code, it was not actually removed. Sigma was once
|
|
again contacted and asked to remove the offending code but until today
|
|
nothing has happened. Therefore the XviD team is now turning to the public
|
|
in the hope to receive wide public support in their efforts to convince
|
|
Sigma Designs to respect the terms of the GPL. And until the matter has
|
|
been resolved XviD development will not continue.
|
|
|
|
That being said I hope all the forum members who saw their threads about
|
|
the Sigma Codecs being closed will understand our motivation now.
|
|
Internally we already knew what was going on but since the XviD authors
|
|
first wanted to try and resolve this internally we respected their wishes
|
|
and kept quiet about the matter at hand.
|
|
|
|
[Update] Sigma has issued a press release announcing the availability of
|
|
the source code of their MPEG-4 codec and it's already up for download.
|
|
However, not a word was lost about the XviD issue and the press release
|
|
makes one think that the Sigma codec was entirely developed by Sigma so we
|
|
might be hearing more about this.
|
|
|
|
[Update] I found a GPL notice in some of the source code files, but it
|
|
also looks like Sigma placed their own copyright lines there and XviD
|
|
doesn't get any credit in the source either. The GPL notice also collides
|
|
with Sigma's Software Licensing Agreement that you have to sign before
|
|
downloading codec or source. On on the same issue DivXNetworks said they'd
|
|
fully support XviD in this issue and apparently DXn's relationship with
|
|
Sigma didn't really work out either, as Sigma's Xcard is not as DivX
|
|
compatible as it was advertised.
|
|
|
|
[Update]First an update on the XviD situation. The release of the Sigma
|
|
source code does not mean it's all over, it's far from being over. The
|
|
license agreement which you have to agree to before you can download, and
|
|
install the codec is not compatible with the GPL. Furthermore, it can now
|
|
clearly be seen (download the source code and have a look for yourself)
|
|
that the Sigma codec is pretty much a copy of the XviD codec, but all the
|
|
copyright notices of the original developers have been removed and
|
|
replaced. This does not only violate the GPL but copyright laws - you
|
|
can't just take a program, change a few lines and change the copyright
|
|
statements, you only have copyright protection for the parts you wrote on
|
|
your own. And related to this the Sigma codec also contains code taken
|
|
from the OpenDivX project, the files were outfitted with 2 different
|
|
copyright notices which is quite funny."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[1] http://www.xvid.org/
|
|
[2] http://www.sigmadesigns.com
|
|
[3] http://www.doom9.org/
|
|
|
|
http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork
|
|
|