[vorbis-dev] Closed Source Releases (Ekk a LGPL problem)

[David Mitchell]

David Terrell wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Sep 07, 2000 at 11:06:32PM +0200, David Burnett wrote:
> > Hi every one,
> >     I have an unfortunate need to release a closed source BeOS media codec
> >  for Vorbis, basically I'm using headers under an NDA so I can't release
> > them.
> >  (Yeah I know closed source boo hiss).
> > So I have a couple of question about what I need to do for all this
> > to be above board.
> 
> As far as I can tell, that's simply not possible under the GPL.
> To meet your qualifications, you'll need to reimplement the vorbis
> codec from spec.
> 
> What headers do you need that are only available under NDA?  Are you
> developing for beta BeOS, BONE, or is there something else involved?
> 

If it's a Be Inc. NDA, you probably don't have a problem. The
codec should be released to others in the Be Testing Partners
group with source. Everyone in that group is already under NDA,
and are most likely to benefit from beta software. Once Be
releases the headers to the public, you can release the codec to
the public.

On the other hand, if the headers are under NDA from some other
company, and that company is not planning on ever releasing the
headers to the public, you have a different problem. In that
case, you should either get vorbis to compile as a shared
library, or as an add-on. As long as you load the vorbis code at
run-time, I believe you can comply with the LGPL. That's the
situation it's meant for, after all.

-David Mitchell

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