Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] Cherry picks vs merges

[Michael Niedermayer <michael@niedermayer.cc>]

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Hi James

On Sun, Jun 01, 2025 at 05:01:09PM -0300, James Almer wrote:
> On 6/1/2025 4:23 PM, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
> > Hi James
> > 
> > On Sun, Jun 01, 2025 at 02:27:37PM -0300, James Almer wrote:
> > > On 6/1/2025 12:22 PM, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
> > > > Hi all
> > > > 
> > > > almpeg is now merged upto 1 months ago. (and since last merge it contains
> > > > bits of AGPL code)
> > > > 
> > > > The question now is, how does the community want to proceed from here?
> > > Full stop.
> > > 
> > 
> > > Not only you're trying to bypass explicit a license notice on
> > > technicalities,
> > 
> > This is a serious accusation.
> > 
> > Code is either under the LGPL license or it is not.
> > It cannot be sometimes under the LGPL license, the license headers
> > on the files in question, distrinbuted by Paul are unmodified
> > LGPL headers. There is no extra notice or anything in these headers.
> > 
> > If paul wants them to be GPL he can change these headers at any time.
> > 
> > And the "explicit license notice" you refer to is this:
> > 
> > "All Librempeg modifications, and any new files not available in FFmpeg, are licensed under GPL v2,
> >   unless stated otherwise."
> > 
> > And it IS stated otherwise in these files by the license header in these
> > files.
> 
> This is the technicality i was talking about. The fact he copy-pasted a
> boilerplate LGPL header in all new files being used as a way to invoke the
> "unless stated otherwise" part of the notice.
> 

> I'm not against merging his changes, and i apologize if what i said before
> sounded like an accusation, but the way i want this to go forward is with
> him being ok with it, and not us trying to find a way to workaround what was
> seemingly his intention to license his changes a certain way.

If Paul and everyone agrees, of course thats better and I would prefer that too.

But also keep in mind he didnt ask us if he can take our LGPL code.


> 
> > 
> > That said, with open source and free software it is the morally correct
> > thing, if one makes changes to code, to return these changes to the parent
> > project under the same license as the parent project.
> > This is morally the ONLY correct thing one can do.
> > 
> > The technicality is that one can change the LGPL to a GPL or AGPL.
> > The purpose of this is allowing to combine LGPL with GPL or AGPL
> > NOT to fork a project and prevent the parent project and its users
> > from having access to the modifications.
> > 
> > You can listen to some interviews by linus torvalds if you think
> > my point here is crazy.
> > I will reply to the rest of your mail seperately to keep this from becoming
> > too long
> > 
> > But one thing id like to mention here, your accusation escalates this
> > in a way that could reduce the chance of paul returning. And
> > I tried my best and i talked (emailed) with paul in the last days.
> > You knew i was working on this and i would have appreciated a private
> > message over a public accusation
> 
> Paul showed up on IRC a week or so ago and said you did not email him. If
> that changed in the last couple days, why didn't you or him mention it?

The dates & subject of the mails i sent to paul:
80754  sF 0527  0:26 To Paul B Mahol (1,4K) Collaboration and Contributions to FFmpeg
80755  sF 0527  1:42 To Paul B Mahol (1,8K) Re: Collaboration and Contributions to FFmpeg
80757  sF 0527 14:05 To Paul B Mahol (2,6K) Re: Collaboration and Contributions to FFmpeg
80759  sF 0527 15:30 To Paul B Mahol (6,2K) Re: Collaboration and Contributions to FFmpeg
80780  sF 0529 22:15 To Paul B Mahol (2,5K) Re: Collaboration and Contributions to FFmpeg

I also received replies from him between these

He was pissed that he was not considered / contacted by fflabs. I showed him a small
part of a private mail that i sent to jb in 2016. Where paul was #2 of the people
i recommanded for FFlabs.

My last mail (only the part i wrote) (and this mail remains unawnsered as of today):

I cannot read your mind, if there is something that you want,
you have to tell me, what you want.

One thing i can propose, is that you could become libavfilter subsystem
maintainer. This would give you authority in libavfilter.

About FFlabs, if you want to join FFlabs, you have to say so.
What i can say is, that i will support that and i expect that this
request would be successfull.

[...]

-- 
Michael     GnuPG fingerprint: 9FF2128B147EF6730BADF133611EC787040B0FAB

The difference between a dictatorship and a democracy is that every 4 years
the population together is allowed to provide 1 bit of input to the government.

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