[SCM] FFmpeg packaging branch, master, updated. debian/0.svn20090303-1-3-g1b87bf2
fabian-guest at users.alioth.debian.org
fabian-guest at users.alioth.debian.org
Thu Mar 12 14:32:56 UTC 2009
The following commit has been merged in the master branch:
commit 419d701b2431ee78c8e802aa4c181740c15dc773
Author: Fabian Greffrath <fabian at debian-unofficial.org>
Date: Thu Mar 12 14:49:24 2009 +0100
Merge the contents of patents.txt into README.Debian and change some paragraphs to (hopefully) add some more clarity on the removed encoders and the package naming scheme. Based on suggestions by Xavier Douville <debian at douville.org>, thank you very much for the review.
diff --git a/debian/README.Debian b/debian/README.Debian
index bee8615..1f73632 100644
--- a/debian/README.Debian
+++ b/debian/README.Debian
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-FFmpeg names
-============
+1) FFmpeg package names
+=======================
The ffmpeg packaging has seen many renames in the course of its history.
Looking for more stable names, the ffmpeg maintainers agreed on moving to
@@ -72,28 +72,12 @@ do not allow to install one or the other library.
To avoid gratuitous package renames, the proposed changes against the above
packages are:
- * The renaming of the binary packages in main will be postponed until
- the next SONAME bump to avoid unnecessary renaming.
-
- * For Debian and Ubuntu the binary packages in the 'main' will be named on
- the next soname change:
-
- - libavcodec-stripped-52
- - libavformat-stripped-52
- - libavdevice-stripped-52
- - libavutil-stripped-52
- - libpostproc-stripped-52
-
- and so on.
-
- * the unstripped replacement package in the 'non-free' (Debian) and
- 'multiverse' (ubuntu) component will be named as above without the
- '-stripped-' marker in the name.
-
- * Only until the next SONAME bump happens: an unstripped replacement package
- for the stripped 'libavcodec51' can provided e.g. in ubuntu multiverse with
- the name 'libavcodec-unstripped-51'. This is implemented by generating an
- shlibs file containing an alternative depedency.
+ * For Debian and Ubuntu the binary packages in the 'main' component will
+ keep their original names without any additional marker.
+
+ * The unstripped replacement packages in the 'non-free' (Debian) and
+ 'multiverse' (ubuntu) component will carry an '-unstripped-' marker in the
+ name right between the library name and its SONAME.
* Ubuntu will track the ffmpeg packages in Debian and tries to minimize the
diff for maintenance reason.
@@ -101,12 +85,12 @@ packages are:
* If you disagree with the naming, please speak up on
pkg-multimedia-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org
-
+
-- Reinhard Tartler <siretart at tauware.de> Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:08:56 +0200
-Disabled MPEG encoders
-======================
+2) Disabled MPEG encoders
+=========================
On Debconf 7, the ffmpeg maintainers had a conversation with James Troup
from the ftpteam about mpeg encoders in the ffmpeg package. The ftpteam
@@ -116,29 +100,26 @@ them. We agreed on a plan that rather disables than removes the
encoders, for details see debian/strip.sh, rendering those encoders
unusable.
+Currently the following video encoders are disabled in the ffmpeg-debian
+source code: H263, H264, MPEG2 video, MPEG4 and MS-MPEG4.
+
In order to make this fact visible, the source package was renamed from
-ffmpeg to ffmpeg-free. The plan is to provide a source package called
-'ffmpeg' (without the -free) suffix, which builds drop-in replacement
+ffmpeg to ffmpeg-debian. The plan is to provide a source package called
+'ffmpeg' (without the -debian) suffix, which builds drop-in replacement
binary package with the mpeg encoders enabled. Ideally, we would be
allowed to include those mpeg encoders enabled in non-free, but we
haven't heared back from the ftpteam about that idea.
+
-- Reinhard Tartler <siretart at tauware.de>, Sun, 20 Apr 2008 08:43:23 +0200
-Notes for the Debian ffmpeg packages
+3) Further patent issues with ffmpeg
====================================
- The license for the whole work is the GPL, not the LGPL, because GPL-only
-parts of ffmpeg were activated. If you need LGPL versions of the libraries,
-please comment out the appropriate lines in debian/confflags.
-
-
-Summary of the patent issues with ffmpeg
-========================================
-
- The only patents related to ffmpeg which seem to be enforced against open
-source software cover the following codec technologies and file formats:
+In addition to the aforementioned MPEG encoders, some patents related to
+ffmpeg which seem to be enforced against open source software cover the
+following codec technologies and file formats:
* MP3 encoding
* AAC encoding
@@ -147,11 +128,109 @@ source software cover the following codec technologies and file formats:
I did not activate MP3 encoding (through LAME) in libavcodec, nor AAC
encoding (through FAAC). However, since I have found no real enforcement
of the mysterious ASF file format patents, I did not deactivate ASF support in
-libavformat. See more details in the patents.txt file.
+libavformat. More details on these three issues are given in the following
+paragraphs:
+
+
+3.1) The MP3 audio coding format
+================================
+
+ Much has already been said about MP3 and the huge patent portfolio of
+the MPEG members, especially the Fraunhofer institute. Eric Scheirer's
+MPEG, Patents, and Audio Coding FAQ [1.1] is an attempt to "inject
+some sanity in what is becoming an increasingly heated discussion
+about patent rights surrounding MPEG technology, especially for audio
+compression". It also has a few words about other patented products
+covered in this document.
+
+[1.1] http://web.media.mit.edu/~eds/mpeg-patents-faq
+
+
+3.2) The AAC audio coding format
+================================
+
+ Dolby's AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is covered by patents owned by
+Dolby Laboratories, AT&T Laboratories, Fraunhofer Institute and Sony
+Corp.
+
+ The FAAC project was threatened by the AAC license consortium. Press
+report about how "an opensource project was closed down due to pressures
+from the AAC license consortium which requires a lumpsum payment of
+10,000 USD plus a per-copy payment of 1.35 USD, thus effectively banning
+free software implementations. The policies surrounding AAC also harm
+interoperability [2.2]." This was related by Heise [2.3] and FFII has
+a page about the Dolby threat [2.1] as well as additional information
+about MPEG-related patents [2.4].
+
+ The author stopped distributing the FAAC binaries, but still provides
+full source code and CVS access. To my knowledge he has not been
+threatened again. I also read on a web forum [2.5] that Cisco's lawyers
+claim that their LGPL distribution of AAC software in MPEG4IP is
+completely legal and that Dolby cannot forbid such distribution.
+
+[2.1] http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/effects/dolby/index.en.html
+[2.2] http://www.xiph.org/archives/vorbis-dev/200011/0286.html
+[2.3] http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/vza-20.11.00-000/
+[2.4] http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/effects/mpeg/index.en.html
+[2.5] http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?showtopic=310&
+
+
+3.3) The ASF file encapsulation format
+======================================
+
+ Microsoft obtained a patent on the ASF (Active Stream Format) audio
+file format on March 21, 2000:
+
+ | United States Patent 6,041,345 Levi , et al. March 21, 2000
+ |
+ | Active stream format for holding multiple media streams
+ |
+ | Abstract An active stream format is defined and adopted for a
+ | logical structure that encapsulates multiple data streams. The data
+ | streams may be of different media. The data of the data streams
+ | is partitioned into packets that are suitable for transmission
+ | over a transport medium. The packets may include error correcting
+ | information. The packets may also include clock licenses for
+ | dictating the advancement of a clock when the data streams are
+ | rendered. The format of ASF facilitates flexibility and choice
+ | of packet size and in specifying maximum bit rate at which data
+ | may be rendered. Error concealment strategies may be employed in
+ | the packetization of data to distribute portions of samples to
+ | multiple packets. Property information may be replicated and stored
+ | in separate packets to enhance its error tolerance. The format
+ | facilitates dynamic definition of media types and the packetization
+ | of data in such dynamically defined data types within the format.
+
+ This patent is rumoured to have been enforced at least once, though
+only through what I'd call non-hostile intimidation. Avery Lee, the
+VirtualDub author, removed ASF support from his software after a phone
+call from a Microsoft employee that he relates in his 5/12/2000 news
+[3.1].
+
+ However I could not find evidence of an official threat: all I could
+find on the web seemed to be interpretations of the VirtualDub author's
+article, for instance on Advogato [3.2], CPT [3.3] or FFII [3.4]. Avery
+Lee states that the phone call was from a programmer, not from the
+legal department. There does not seem to be an official statement from
+Microsoft.
+
+[3.1] http://web.archive.org/web/20000817222620/http://www.geocities.com/virtualdub/virtualdub_news.html
+[3.2] http://www.advogato.com/article/101.html
+[3.3] http://www.cptech.org/ip/business/software/audio.html
+[3.4] http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/effects/asf/index.en.html
+
+
+4) License of the Debian ffmpeg packages
+========================================
+
+The license for the whole work is the GPL, not the LGPL, because GPL-only
+parts of ffmpeg were activated -- namely libpostproc, libswscale, x11grab and
+(optionally) libfaad2. If you need LGPL versions of the libraries, please
+comment out the appropriate line in debian/confflags.
-Differences with unofficial ffmpeg packages
-===========================================
+5) Differences with unofficial ffmpeg packages
+==============================================
There are popular unofficial ffmpeg packages at the following URL:
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index fc3f67b..51065b6 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+ffmpeg-debian (3:0.svn20090303-2) unstable; urgency=low
+
+ * Merge the contents of patents.txt into README.Debian and change some
+ paragraphs to (hopefully) add some more clarity on the removed encoders
+ and the package naming scheme. Based on suggestions by Xavier Douville
+ <debian at douville.org>, thank you very much for the review.
+
+ -- Fabian Greffrath <fabian at debian-unofficial.org> Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:41:49 +0100
+
ffmpeg-debian (3:0.svn20090303-1) unstable; urgency=low
* New Upstream Version (svn revision 17737 libswscale revision 28799)
--
FFmpeg packaging
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