Massive Licensing Violation?

Scott Fritzinger <[email protected]> Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:26:51 -0700
Newsgroups gmane.comp.video.mjpeg.devel
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hey there!

I'm writing to say that I came across a piece of software that looks 
like it is violating the mpeg2enc and mplex license. It appears that 
they are trying to hide the fact that they are using them by wrapping 
your software in a DLL.

The name of the closed-source software is DVD Photo Slideshow 
(http://www.dvd-photo-slideshow.com). The only email address I can find 
on their site is [email protected] . The software sells for $60 (!!) 
and is highly dependent on the software that it is mis-using.

The software is also violating the licenses of several software packages 
as well. I am sending those other projects a similar email. For GPL 
packages, there is no source available. For LGPL packages, there is no 
license anywhere and there is no link to download the sofware. grep'ing 
the installation shows that there is no mention of 'gpl' anywhere.

Project		Component			License
---------------------------------------------------------------
cdrecord	mkisofs				GPL
cdrdao		cdrdao				GPL
dvdauthor	dvdauthor, spumux		GPL
id3lib		id3lib				LGPL
lame		lame				LGPL
mjpeg-tools	mpeg2enc, mplex			GPL

I may very well have missed other violations. This is pretty freaking 
stupid of the company. With such a large number of violations, I'm 
wondering if the FSF would jump in to represent all of the projects?

- Scott Fritzinger
   Founder and former developer for the gPhoto Project



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