[Mageia-dev] rehashing the faac issue

Wed Oct 3 18:26:14 CEST 2012

Claire Robinson a écrit :
+> On 03/10/12 15:20, Sander Lepik wrote:
+>> 03.10.2012 17:07, Guillaume Rousse kirjutas:
+>>> Which means using 'nonfree' repository instead of 'tainted'...
+>>>
+>>> OK, let's vote here:
+>>> - how many people for using 'tainted' ?
+>>> - how many people for using 'non-free' ?
+>>>
+>>> Any solution involving technical changes doesn't qualify for a simple
+>>> solution, and doesn't seems worth the effort for just a single package...
+>>>
+>> Well, you can't list 'non-free' as an option here as faac contains
+>> content that belongs to tainted repo. If you land it there we will cause
+>> problems for some mirrors and that is a no-go option.
+>>
+>> If you want to vote then we can vote between those options:
+>> - land it in 'tainted'
+>> - it remains excluded
+>>
+>> My vote goes to tainted. Yes, non-free and free packages will be mixed
+>> but most users would vote for including it. Free software lovers can
+>> just avoid it. They should be better informed than normal user anyway.
+>>
+>> -- 
+>> Sander
+>>
+> 
+> I vote for tainted. I like Colin's idea too though.
+> 
+> Claire
+> 
+I vote for tainted too ...
+
+It is quite simple for faac and handbrake and cinerella (both absolutely
+needing faac) :
+They may be provided in tainted with some information in URPMI telling
+that they contain a basis (MPEG4 standard) that is not opensource, even
+if everything else in their source is GPL or LGPL... so that opensource
+exclusive users may choose not to install them, and other users are not
+afraid with this information...)
+
+There's a patent problem for them ... mirror admins may choose to
+provide or not the tainted repo in their country. and users may choose
+to use a foreign country repo if they want not to respect the local
+law... ;)
+
+
+
+It is a little more complex for avidemux, mplayer (the mencoder part of
+it) libquicktime, gstreamer ... for them faac is an option
+
+Now they are provided in core (built without option leading to patent
+problems) and in tainted (built with options leading to patent problem
+such as libdvdcss, lame, faad ...)
+Every user has the choice to use or not patent encoumbered softwares
+(this choice is only restricted by local laws) don't have to question if
+they are opensource or not : they are !
+
+
+If faac is pushed into tainted
+What to do with the "build with faac" option for vlc mplayer and others ?
+1) - Build them all only with this option (plf choice) (excluding de
+facto strict opensource users from some useful tainted other options !)
+
+2) -Build them once without this option (OK for strict users )
+- and build them a second time with this option  ... informing
+opensource strict users that it's not for them and others that this adds
+the possibility to work on aac or mp4 files
+(can the two versions coexist in the same repo ? need to give two
+different names to them? modify the buildsystem? increases QA job ? )
+
+
+
+A developers informal vote is perhaps not enough ... Need a poll ?
+More than this, that concerns the QA team too and perhaps the Board :
+perhaps some legal problem, even in France indeed, that we do not know!!!
+I can't know if the fact that Fraunhofer (one of the authors of the
+standard) provides a copyleft enhanced encoder is a good or a bad news
+for the possibility to use freely faac --- I mean free as beer,  until
+everything is rewritten to be built upon fdk-aac instead of faac !)
+
+For Mageia4 the faac problem will certainly be closed, thanks to fdk-aac.
+
+
+
+Philippe
+
+