Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

I doubt it was anything to do with the conversations that our technical team have been having these past few weeks with two new networks and one old (well, not ‘old’ but current / existing) with regard OpenSplash but we’ve noticed a lot more people downloading and experimenting with the open source software recently.

The downloads (the ones we are told about) are mainly academia, screen display folks and device manufacturers but out of all those it’s the new, new networks that we have been talking to a lot recently.

Expect some RFPs to be published in the New Year with OpenSplash being a formal requirement.

And remember, if anyone needs any help with understanding / getting to grips / getting up to speed / making the most of OpenSplash, Silver Curve‘s Bryan Crotaz (and on our Steering Group) is available to consult.


2 Responses to “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed”

  1. Northern Code Monkey Says:

    Firstly many thanks to all involved in the OpenSplash project, especially Ayuda for donating the code.

    I think it’s right to point out though that under the terms of the GNU license applications like FFMPEG and MPLAYER, etc insist any code connected to, or using these libraries also needs to be made available as open source.

    So well done to Ayuda for doing this and shame to any other software vendors who are using these products for personal gain!

  2. Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief Says:

    To be clear, OpenSplash is available under a slightly modified LGPL license, not the standard GPL license.

    The main difference between the two is that the GPL requires any derivative works to be licensed under the GPL as well. Whereas the LGPL (and hence the OpenSplash Public License (“OSL”)) allows 3rd-party software to link to (or use) the work (in this case OpenSplash), to create separate works that may or may not be licensed under the OSL.

    So while your point is factually incorrect – that is, you don’t have to make your work ‘open–source’ if you dynamically link to OpenSplash – it is still within the spirit of the OpenSplash initiative which is to foster an open community of developers for a standardised media player.

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