[Mageia-dev] Faac and building upon faac

Wed Sep 21 20:53:21 CEST 2011

On 21.09.2011 21:41, Philippe DIDIER wrote:
+> First I may apologize for breaking the thread
+> (a little technical and geographical problem...)
+> 
+> On/Wed Sep 21 03:47:31 CEST 2011/  *Anssi Hannula*  wrote :
+>> On 21.09.2011 03:14, Philippe DIDIER wrote:
+>>> /  Anssi Hannula wrote /Tue Sep 20 17:29:44/ :
+> />>>/Including faac itself is no less safe than other patent-encumbered
+> />>>/codecs, since the non-free parts do not forbid redistribution.
+> />/>
+> />/>  The only non-free and non GPL part of FAAC is the ISO MPEG reference
+> />/>  code which
+> />/>  it is based on... to comply with this international standard (nothing
+> />/>  strange in that)
+> />/>  everything else is LGPL .
+> />/>  An international standard may not be modified,  for sure, and is
+> surely
+> />/>  not GPL !
+> />/>  And for this reason we may consider FAAC as non-free...
+> />
+>> Copying reference code is not needed to comply with an international
+>> standard.
+> 
+> Sorry, my phrase was not clear enough :
+> I meant :
+> To comply with international standard (ISO), faac needed to be based on
+> /the ISO MPEG reference/  /code/  , which is non-free and non GPL, and
+> which is included
+> in the sources... everything else is LGPL !
+> Texas Instrument wrote and copyrighted this part of the ISO MPEG
+> reference code in 1997...
+> 
+> (I didn't mean that simply copying the reference code is needed to comply
+> with the international standard...)
+
+There is no need whatsoever to base AAC encoder code in the reference
+code to comply with the standard.
+
+All that is needed is an encoder that complies with the stream format
+specification in the standard (which is not program code).
+
+None of the other encoders we have that comply with international
+standard are based on non-free reference code (to the best of our
+knowledge, of course).
+
+> Hope this post will arrive before the tonight meeting...
+
+-- 
+Anssi Hannula
+