Stripping out encoders from the ffmpeg and mplayer package

[Reinhard Tartler]

Hello ftpmaster.

did you receive my previous mail? According to Joerg, it did arrive but
I haven't heared any response from you yet.

Reinhard Tartler <siretart at debian.org> writes:
>  3. What codecs do you request to be removed? I'm asking because #476644
>     is requesting h261 to be reenabled again, and I've been approached
>     to enable h263 as well.

I've now uploaded a new svn snapshot to debian experimental, that
reenables the h261 decoder but leaves the h263 encoder disabled. I
really did not find any reference or speculation of enforcment of h261
encoders, so I don't really expect problems here. If you disagree,
please let me know soon, can reupload a new ffmpeg package without the
h261 encoder at any time. I know that there are quite some packages
eagerly waiting on the new ffmpeg snapshot, and I'd like to not block
them with the decision on this.

I also did some more research on the h263/h264 mess. As far I understand
it, the MPEG LA offers a patent license for h264 based on the sold
units.  The offer does not distinguish between encoder and decoder. This
has been discussed on the ffmpeg mailing list in the thread starting at
http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/ffmpeg-user/2006-September/004233.html.

What does this mean for debian? AFAIUI, there is no indication that
debian would get sued by the MPEG LA, because debian does not sell
"units" in the sense of the MPEG LA patent license. However some of our
downstream distributors do. Because of that, you could argue that such
encoders would be acceptable for non-free provided that we warn our
downstream the risks.


-- 
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4