Re: [libdv-dev] Utility to split a DV file based on the timestamps

[Bernhard K. <bk...@su...>]

Hi Olivier,

On Sun, 1 Jun 2008, Olivier Croquette wrote:
> 
> Hi all
> 
> For my own needs, I have written a command line utility based on libdv to
> split a DV file in smaller DV files based on the frame timestamps.
> 
> It may be useful to other people, so I post it here. Is there also a way to
> include it in the libdv distribution?
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Olivier

while I can't speak for the authors of libdv, I can give you my perspective as
the maintainer of the libdv package in openSUSE:

libdv C source files (including tools like playdv, excluding man pages, which
are licensed under the GPL) appear to be licensed by using these license header
in the files:

 *  This file is part of libdv, a free DV (IEC 61834/SMPTE 314M)
 *  codec.
 *
 *  libdv is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 *  under the terms of the GNU Lesser Public License as published by
 *  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1, or (at your
 *  option) any later version.
 *   
 *  libdv is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
 *  WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 *  Lesser Public License for more details.
 *   
 *  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser Public License
 *  along with libdv; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to
 *  the Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. 
 *
 *  The libdv homepage is http://libdv.sourceforge.net/.  

That means the source code of libdv seems to be released under LGPL v2.1
or newer.

The license header which you used uses GPLv3. To your file as is to libdv,
one would have to add the GPLv3 COPYING file as COPYING.GPLv3 and indicate
that dvsplit is licensed under GPLv3 while the rest is LGPL v2.1.

Just to not complicate things for adding one utility, I'd prefer if you would
license dvsplit under LGPL v2.1 using the same license header as the other C
files use.

To make the name consistent with playdv and encodedv, I'd name it splitdv.

It would also be needed to have a manual page for dvsplit/splitdv, you can
likely take e.g. the file playdv.1 as base and copy the entries in
Makefile{,in,am} from playdv.1 to cause that the the autoconf/make
process builds and installs your man page.

If you then create a patch  between the old and the new libdv tree using
'diff -u', people could add it to their libdv builds, and it would make it
also easyer for Dan Dennedy <da...@de...> to add it to the CVS repository
of libdv.

You may want to contact Dan directly if you are unsure wether creating
a man page and an update patch with 'diff -u' which compiles and installs
the tool and its man page is something for you, but I guess it could help,
especially the availability of a man page and using the same license as
the rest of libdv should help.

Bernhard