Re: [ITP] openh264 (2.3.1)

[Yaakov Selkowitz <yselkowitz@cygwin.com>]

On Sun, 2023-02-05 at 22:11 -0700, Brian Inglis wrote:
> On 2023-02-05 19:44, Yaakov Selkowitz via Cygwin-apps wrote:
> > On Sun, 2023-02-05 at 17:37 +0900, Takashi Yano via Cygwin-apps wrote:
> > > I would like to propose new package openh264, which is
> > > a H264 video codec library. This is needed by ffmpeg
> > > package I had proposed, and also provided for ffmpeg-free
> > > package in fedora.
> > > 
> > > I already prepared the package at the following location.
> > > 
> > > https://tyan0.yr32.net/cygwin/x86_64/release/openh264/
> 
> > Unfortunately, this cannot be included in the Cygwin distribution. 
> > Cisco's
> > patent license only covers binaries they distribute.  Fedora has a special
> > arrangement with Cisco where they build their RPMs on Fedora
> > infrastructure,
> > but the packages are hosted by Cisco in a separate repository.
> 
> http://www.openh264.org/
> "Cisco has taken their H.264 implementation, and open sourced it under BSD 
> license terms. Development and maintenance will be overseen by a board from 
> industry and the open source community. Furthermore, we have provided a
> binary 
> form suitable for inclusion in applications across a number of different 
> operating systems, and make this binary module available for download from
> the 
> Internet. We will not pass on our MPEG-LA licensing costs for this module,
> and 
> based on the current licensing environment, this will effectively make H.264
> free for use on supported platforms."

This is exactly the point.  Cisco paid for a license, but that license is
limited to binaries they distribute.  Unfortunately, I doubt that Cisco will
do the same for Cygwin.

-- 
Yaakov