[Flac-dev] Should FLAC join Xiph?

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Fri, Nov 22, 2002 at 09:46:19AM +0100, Steve Lhomme wrote:

> BTW, what are the concerns here ? You want one library to support the FLAC
> on *all* platforms ? Or you just want to make sure that other libraries
> comply with the format specified (?) in the main library ?
> 
> For the first case, the license matters. For the second it doesn't.

Neither situation has any bearing on alternative implementations.  FLAC's
algorithms are not patented, and anyone is free to create their own
implementation under any licensing terms that they choose.  It only relates
to how the reference implementation can be used.

> And BTW, Microsoft used some BSD programs (FTP client among others)
> instead of making the code from scratch. Idem with MSIE which started with
> the Mosaic code.

I support copyleft licensing where it makes sense.  In this case, since it
is unavoidable that I must interact with people using Windows on a daily
basis, I would prefer that Microsoft use a stable, mature implementation of
these basic programs rather than reimplementing them.

-- 
 - mdz