Redistribution of VLC Media Player

[kaekl]

Hi there!

We are evaluating the options to use the VLC Media Player in a commercial offering and have several questions that are not explicitly covered on the web pages, the wiki and the forum.

We hope to receive answers in the dialog here and that the following initial description is a good start for a discussion. I know it is mainly a licensing questions and I’m afraid people may already be tired of this.

Our goal is to get a clear understanding on how the VLC Media Player (or parts of VLC) can be integrated in a commercial product. We would like to understand the integration options with our parts, the shipment/redistribution and the operational options.

We understand that the VLC Media Player (we are anticipating version 2.2.x, 64 bit, Windows) is provided by VideoLAN under the GPL 2.0 license. Whilst several components of the package use GPL 2.0, other components/modules use different licenses (LGPL 2.1 or later, MIT, BSD, BSD 3-clause, BSD-like, zlib, ISC, TreeType, GSM, libpng).
In particular, libVLC is licensed under LGPL 2.1 or later.

In order to comply to the license obligations when redistributing VLC Media Player we would:
- redistribute the original download package vlc-2.2.1-win64.zip as is in a distribution archive.
- include the original source package vlc-2.2.1.tar.xz as is within the distribution archive.
- include a separate notice text in the distribution archive describing the use of VLC and including references to the license(s), the COPYING and THANKS files (which include obligatory copyright notices for some of the above licenses).
- include the license texts of the associated licenses in the distribution artefact.

During the installation procedure on product consumer side we would
- integrate our internally developed (proprietary license) Java application with the unpacked VLC binaries using native VLC integration.
- argue that the LGPL 2.1 allows us this integration without copy-left effect on our software due to the LGPL 2.1 terms
- argue that we are using the complete VLC package (GPL 2.0 and others) as separate isolated and unmodified component.

Further, we would derive a risk concerning patent infringement with respect to the modules of VLC into our internal risk management and seek for continuous evaluation and mitigation.

Our questions:
- Do you regard this approach to be in alignment with the idea of VLC and VideoLAN?
- Do you regard this approach as sufficient to comply to the license obligations of the covered licenses? Have you seen other approaches?
- Do you have a comprehensive risk assessment of the modules, which might be subject to patent litigation?

We will clarify this usage pattern of the VLC Media Player with our legal support in the near future. It would be great to have a consolidated view beforehand.

Thanks for your responses!

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Our questions:
- Do you regard this approach to be in alignment with the idea of VLC and VideoLAN?
- Do you regard this approach as sufficient to comply to the license obligations of the covered licenses? Have you seen other approaches?
- Do you have a comprehensive risk assessment of the modules, which might be subject to patent litigation?

- Yes
- Yes, you're doing more than most people, so that's totally fine. However, you might need to remove some GPL plugins.
- No, it really depends on your country and your use-case. You should mail me about that part, if you want more details.

[kaekl]

Hi!

Thanks for the quick reply!!

Following up on your answers:

- Yes, you're doing more than most people, so that's totally fine. However, you might need to remove some GPL plugins.

Could you please be a little bit more specific on this answer to my second question? I understand that you see the approach as initially outlined as not compliant (or at least associated with issues), as long as I do not remove some GPL components? Does this mean that specific GPL components are regarded problematic? Could you name these? What problem in terms of compliance (delivery / operational) do you see?

- No, it really depends on your country and your use-case. You should mail me about that part, if you want more details.

Will do.

Best regards,
Kaekl