[ITP] openh264 (2.3.1)

[Yaakov Selkowitz]

On Mon, 2023-02-06 at 14:25 +0900, Takashi Yano via Cygwin-apps wrote:
> On Mon, 06 Feb 2023 00:16:45 -0500
> Yaakov Selkowitz via Cygwin-apps <cygwin-apps@cygwin.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, 2023-02-05 at 22:11 -0700, Brian Inglis wrote:
> > > On 2023-02-05 19:44, Yaakov Selkowitz via Cygwin-apps wrote:
> > > > On Sun, 2023-02-05 at 17:37 +0900, Takashi Yano via Cygwin-apps wrote:
> > > > > I would like to propose new package openh264, which is
> > > > > a H264 video codec library. This is needed by ffmpeg
> > > > > package I had proposed, and also provided for ffmpeg-free
> > > > > package in fedora.
> > > > > 
> > > > > I already prepared the package at the following location.
> > > > > 
> > > > > https://tyan0.yr32.net/cygwin/x86_64/release/openh264/
> > > 
> > > > Unfortunately, this cannot be included in the Cygwin distribution. 
> > > > Cisco's
> > > > patent license only covers binaries they distribute.  Fedora has a
> > > > special
> > > > arrangement with Cisco where they build their RPMs on Fedora
> > > > infrastructure,
> > > > but the packages are hosted by Cisco in a separate repository.
> > > 
> > > http://www.openh264.org/
> > > "Cisco has taken their H.264 implementation, and open sourced it under
> > > BSD 
> > > license terms. Development and maintenance will be overseen by a board
> > > from 
> > > industry and the open source community. Furthermore, we have provided a
> > > binary 
> > > form suitable for inclusion in applications across a number of different
> > > operating systems, and make this binary module available for download
> > > from
> > > the 
> > > Internet. We will not pass on our MPEG-LA licensing costs for this
> > > module,
> > > and 
> > > based on the current licensing environment, this will effectively make
> > > H.264
> > > free for use on supported platforms."
> > 
> > This is exactly the point.  Cisco paid for a license, but that license is
> > limited to binaries they distribute.  Unfortunately, I doubt that Cisco
> > will
> > do the same for Cygwin.
> 
> OK. How about distributing only headers as cygwin package
> for building ffmpeg?

The Fedora package includes openh264 headers and a patch which will dlopen()
libopenh264 if present.  These could be used (with the modification
libopenh264.so.N -> cygopenh264-N.dll of course) in the Cygwin package.

-- 
Yaakov