[mythtv] Flowplayer in Mythweb

[Chris Petersen]

On 07/08/2009 04:48 PM, Rob Smith wrote:
> I'll compile it out soon, we won't release with that logo there.

Just an update for the rest of you on why this change didn't go in.

I took some time tonight to read through the GPLv3 and I'm pretty sure
that we can't remove the Flowplayer logo.  I'm definitely not a lawyer,
but after all of the work I've participated in on policies, agreements,
and contracts for Schedules Direct, I've gotten pretty good at seeing
the ways that legalese *could* be interpreted.

First, it starts with its own preamble to the GPL:

  Note that the GPL requires that you don't remove the Flowpayer
  copyright notices from the user interface. See section 5.d below.

Section 5d reads:

  d) If the work has interactive user interfaces, each must display
  Appropriate Legal Notices; however, if the Program has interactive
  interfaces that do not display Appropriate Legal Notices, your
  work need not make them do so.

Earlier in the document, Appropriate Legal Notices is defined as:

  a convenient and prominently visible feature that (1) displays
  an appropriate copyright notice

This would indicate that we could remove the logo, but would have to
maintain the copyright notice for Flowplayer itself.  However,
Flowplayer's preamble is incorrect in which section it references.
Looking to section 7 (which covers additional terms that copyright
holders can apply to the work), we see:

  you may (if authorized by the copyright holders of that material)
  supplement the terms of this License with terms: .......

  b) Requiring preservation of specified reasonable legal notices or
  author attributions in that material or in the Appropriate Legal
  Notices displayed by works containing it; or

It's a pretty safe interpretation to say that Flowplayer has created a
UI that contains artwork copyright to themselves, and are following
section 7b of the GPLv3 and providing a supplemental statement at the
start of the license that requires derivative works to retain the
Flowplayer logo and copyright statements that are present within the UI.

I'm not willing to risk legal action from Flowplayer by interpreting the
GPL in a different way and removing their copyright statements and logos
-- they would certainly have enough legal right to take some
representative from MythTV to court about it (most likely end up being
me), and it would cost too much to fight it out even if I thought it was
a case that could end up in our favor (which I don't).

I suspect that the only way around this issue would be to write a new UI
completely from scratch (which imho isn't worth it just to remove a logo
that presents only a minor annoyance).

Anyway, probably more legalese than you expected.  I'm actually
surprised that statements like these actually made it into the GPL,
since they actually restrict the kinds of changes that can be applied to
derivative works.  Then again, the GPL has always been a restrictive
license compared to others like BSD, etc.

-Chris

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