Hello, I am developing a game engine which will support Ogg Vorbis playback. If I were to use LibOgg and LibVorbis, would I then have to release my own product under BSD, thus requiring anyone who created games with it to do the same and reference Xiph.org in their game's credits? While I can definitely include a license file with my library, enforcing my own end-users to do the same would be difficult at best and so I'm wondering if there is a licensing fee or similar which would allow me to develop software which integrates LibOgg and LibVorbis without having to pass licensing restrictions on to my end users? Kind regards, Jordan. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/vorbis/attachments/20141201/ce08848b/attachment.htm
On 2014-12-2 07:13 , Jordan Verner wrote:> Hello, > I am developing a game engine which will support Ogg Vorbis playback. > If I were to use LibOgg and LibVorbis, would I then have to release my > own product under BSD, thus requiring anyone who created games with it > to do the same and reference Xiph.org in their game's credits? > While I can definitely include a license file with my library, enforcing > my own end-users to do the same would be difficult at best and so I'm > wondering if there is a licensing fee or similar which would allow me to > develop software which integrates LibOgg and LibVorbis without having to > pass licensing restrictions on to my end users? > Kind regards, > > Jordan.Maybe you should just read the license terms? They're quite straightforward. <http://www.xiph.org/licenses/bsd/> There's nothing in there about making you license your own code a certain way, or having to police license violations by your users. - Josh
If you want a definitive answer, you'll have to ask a lawyer (sadly). My layman's understanding is that the license means that anyone who distributes any part of libogg or libvorbis must include the copyright notices and license text when they do so. That's all. It doesn't matter who is doing the distributing, you or your users or anyone else, they all have to follow that one simple rule to avoid copyright infringement. Anyone who is not distributing the code covered by the license is not affected by the license at all. I don't think any country's copyright laws are crazy enough yet to make you liable for your customers' infringement simply because they got the code from you (but I could be wrong...). That would be like holding a record store responsible when someone who bought a CD from them burns copies of it to give to their friends. - Josh On 2014-12-2 09:49 , Jordan Verner wrote:> I'm sorry, but I'm still unclear as to how this affects my end users > (those who create games using my library) and the manner in which they > license their own works. I felt it was smarter to ask than to make > assumptions and risk being asked to pull my work due to license > violations on the part of an end user of mine. > Kind regards, > > Jordan. > >> Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2014 09:25:20 +1100 >> From: josh+xiph at root.id.au >> To: jv_erner at hotmail.com >> CC: vorbis at xiph.org >> Subject: Re: [Vorbis] LibVorbis licensing inquiry >> >> On 2014-12-2 07:13 , Jordan Verner wrote: >> > Hello, >> > I am developing a game engine which will support Ogg Vorbis playback. >> > If I were to use LibOgg and LibVorbis, would I then have to release my >> > own product under BSD, thus requiring anyone who created games with it >> > to do the same and reference Xiph.org in their game's credits? >> > While I can definitely include a license file with my library, enforcing >> > my own end-users to do the same would be difficult at best and so I'm >> > wondering if there is a licensing fee or similar which would allow me to >> > develop software which integrates LibOgg and LibVorbis without having to >> > pass licensing restrictions on to my end users? >> > Kind regards, >> > >> > Jordan. >> >> Maybe you should just read the license terms? They're quite > straightforward. >> >> <http://www.xiph.org/licenses/bsd/> >> >> There's nothing in there about making you license your own code a >> certain way, or having to police license violations by your users. >> >> - Josh
On Mon, Dec 1, 2014 at 12:13 PM, Jordan Verner <jv_erner at hotmail.com> wrote:> Hello, > I am developing a game engine which will support Ogg Vorbis playback. > If I were to use LibOgg and LibVorbis, would I then have to release my own > product under BSDNo. The BSD-style license does not affect your own code. It only requires attribution of the use of the Xiph code by including the original license text somewhere.> thus requiring anyone who created games with it to do the > same and reference Xiph.org in their game's credits?The Xiph copyright/license attribution will need to be preserved, yes. That's not the same as releasing your own product under a BSD license.> While I can definitely include a license file with my library, enforcing my > own end-users to do the same would be difficult at best and so I'm wondering > if there is a licensing fee or similar which would allow me to develop > software which integrates LibOgg and LibVorbis without having to pass > licensing restrictions on to my end users?You're not liable for enforcement. You need only follow the terms of the license yourself. Cheers, Monty Xiph.org
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