Is VLC media player for Windows free for commercial use?
Posted: 03 Nov 2023 11:58
Hello,
I have installed VLC 3.0.20 for Windows 64 bits. I have gone through the License Agreement while installing the setup file.
Only GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE and GNU Lesser General Public License are specified in the License Agreement. The github page of VLC https://github.com/videolan/vlc also states: "GPL-2.0, LGPL-2.1 licenses found". Hence it should be free for commercial use.
But on the FAQ page https://wiki.videolan.org/Frequently_Asked_Questions/ one of the FAQ:-
"What about personal/commercial usage?" has an answer:-
{
Some of the codecs distributed with VLC are patented and require you to pay royalties to their licensors. These are mostly the MPEG style codecs.
With many products the producer pays the license body (in this case MPEG LA) so the user (commercial or personal) does not have to take care of this. VLC (and ffmpeg and libmpeg2 – which it uses in most of these cases) cannot do this because they are Free and Open Source implementations of these codecs. The software is not sold, and therefore the end-user becomes responsible for complying with the licensing and royalty requirements. You will need to contact the licensor on how to comply with these licenses.
This goes for playing a DVD with VLC for your personal enjoyment ($2.50 one time payment to MPEG LA) as well as for using VLC for streaming a live event in MPEG-4 over the Internet.
}
I only understand which extensions are played by VLC media player. I don't know which codecs are being distributed/installed by VLC media player or codecs used by VLC media player while playing a video/audio. Also, there is no such thing mentioned about codecs or paying royalties to a licensor in the License Agreement. So, how do I know whether I have to pay royalties to a licensor or not.
Thank you.
I have installed VLC 3.0.20 for Windows 64 bits. I have gone through the License Agreement while installing the setup file.
Only GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE and GNU Lesser General Public License are specified in the License Agreement. The github page of VLC https://github.com/videolan/vlc also states: "GPL-2.0, LGPL-2.1 licenses found". Hence it should be free for commercial use.
But on the FAQ page https://wiki.videolan.org/Frequently_Asked_Questions/ one of the FAQ:-
"What about personal/commercial usage?" has an answer:-
{
Some of the codecs distributed with VLC are patented and require you to pay royalties to their licensors. These are mostly the MPEG style codecs.
With many products the producer pays the license body (in this case MPEG LA) so the user (commercial or personal) does not have to take care of this. VLC (and ffmpeg and libmpeg2 – which it uses in most of these cases) cannot do this because they are Free and Open Source implementations of these codecs. The software is not sold, and therefore the end-user becomes responsible for complying with the licensing and royalty requirements. You will need to contact the licensor on how to comply with these licenses.
This goes for playing a DVD with VLC for your personal enjoyment ($2.50 one time payment to MPEG LA) as well as for using VLC for streaming a live event in MPEG-4 over the Internet.
}
I only understand which extensions are played by VLC media player. I don't know which codecs are being distributed/installed by VLC media player or codecs used by VLC media player while playing a video/audio. Also, there is no such thing mentioned about codecs or paying royalties to a licensor in the License Agreement. So, how do I know whether I have to pay royalties to a licensor or not.
Thank you.