VLC Licensing Issue

[gobengsiong]

Hi Dearest VideoLAN users/developers:

I am new to videolan and have a doubt about the videolan applications (VLC, VLS) licensing issue.

Actually i plan to re-use VLC/VLS source code in my current project but after heard a news from my colleage, i start to doubt about it. Regarding to my colleage, he said that the VideoLan has facing some licensing problem in publication its application (includeing source code) and the server has been shutdown for some time since early this year (or since last year, he forgot since when). He advised me not to use the VideoLan in my current project. However he didn't mention about the details of licensing issue.

So can you guys let me know whether it is true? May i know more details about it? And is it safe to use the VideoLan?

Thanks & Best regards,
Go

[fkuehne]

None of VideoLANs server were down in the last years because of licensing issues (just because of some technical problems we had).
Both VLC and VLS itself are completely legal in European countries. The only problem is that some libraries VLC can use, are at least controversal in the US and in Germany, because they can circumvent the wanna-be copy-protection of DVDs, etc. It is at your choice whether you decide to include them or not.
Additionally, VLC makes use of the ffmpeg-library, which contains various patented codecs, so you'll need to pay royalties to use them legally.

BTW. You shouldn't use VLS in your project. It is quite outdated, unmaintained and technically mostly unknown to most of VideoLAN's current developers. I strongly recommend you to use VLC.

Moreover, I would like to mention that our license, the GNU General Public License v2.0, requires you to release the source of your complete application in case your are using any parts of VLC's source unless there isn't any binding between the modules (so VLC will run in its own threads and processes as an own, independent application).

[gobengsiong]

Hi Fkuehne,

Thanks a lot for the clarification!
Very appreciate that.

Thanks & Best Regards,
Go