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From: Tom <tomwhore@slack.net>
To: fork@spamassassin.taint.org
Cc: vox@mindvox.com
Subject: GPL limits put to a test
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Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 18:33:37 -0400 (EDT)


XviD [1] is a project to make GPL divx codecs. Sigma Designs [1] is a
company  looking to put out hardware to playback, amongst other things,
divx files. Problem is Sigma is using XviDs gpled code in ways not very
gpl. The  results....XviD stops work on thier code and ask the users to
put preasure  on Sigma to honor the GPL.

Some notes from other places....

>>From Doom9 [3]
"XviD development has been stopped! The Sigma Designs REALMagic MPEG-4
Video Codec contains wide portions of code taken from the XviD project.
Soon after the initial release of the REALMagic codec the XviD developers
have contacted Sigma and informed them about the GPL violation (for those
who don't know, XviD is distributed under the GNU Public License - GPL -
which demands that if you modify a GPL program you have to release it
under the GPL, which in this case means that the source code of the Sigma
codec must be freely available). Sigma promised to replace the stolen
code, but the new version of the codec which was released this month only
disguises the stolen code, it was not actually removed. Sigma was once
again contacted and asked to remove the offending code but until today
nothing has happened. Therefore the XviD team is now turning to the public
in the hope to receive wide public support in their efforts to convince
Sigma Designs to respect the terms of the GPL. And until the matter has
been resolved XviD development will not continue.

That being said I hope all the forum members who saw their threads about
the Sigma Codecs being closed will understand our motivation now.
Internally we already knew what was going on but since the XviD authors
first wanted to try and resolve this internally we respected their wishes
and kept quiet about the matter at hand.

[Update] Sigma has issued a press release announcing the availability of
the source code of their MPEG-4 codec and it's already up for download.
However, not a word was lost about the XviD issue and the press release
makes one think that the Sigma codec was entirely developed by Sigma so we
might be hearing more about this.

[Update] I found a GPL notice in some of the source code files, but it
also looks like Sigma placed their own copyright lines there and XviD
doesn't get any credit in the source either. The GPL notice also collides
with Sigma's Software Licensing Agreement that you have to sign before
downloading codec or source. On on the same issue DivXNetworks said they'd
fully support XviD in this issue and apparently DXn's relationship with
Sigma didn't really work out either, as Sigma's Xcard is not as DivX
compatible as it was advertised.

[Update]First an update on the XviD situation. The release of the Sigma
source code does not mean it's all over, it's far from being over. The
license agreement which you have to agree to before you can download, and
install the codec is not compatible with the GPL. Furthermore, it can now
clearly be seen (download the source code and have a look for yourself)
that the Sigma codec is pretty much a copy of the XviD codec, but all the
copyright notices of the original developers have been removed and
replaced. This does not only violate the GPL but copyright laws - you
can't just take a program, change a few lines and change the copyright
statements, you only have copyright protection for the parts you wrote on
your own. And related to this the Sigma codec also contains code taken
from the OpenDivX project, the files were outfitted with 2 different
copyright notices which is quite funny."



[1] http://www.xvid.org/
[2] http://www.sigmadesigns.com
[3] http://www.doom9.org/

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