Relicense the library under LGPL-2.1-or-later - #174
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The repository carried no licence text at all, only a paraphrase of the GPL in LICENSE.
vid.stab is a library, and under the GPL every application linking it had to be GPL as well. In practice that meant ffmpeg could only build the vidstabdetect and vidstabtransform filters under --enable-gpl, so most distributed ffmpeg builds shipped with no video stabilization at all. Under the LGPL an application may link vid.stab without taking on its licence, while modifications to vid.stab itself still have to be published under the LGPL -- the reciprocity that matters for a library. Every contributor whose code is in src/ agreed to the change in issue #165; the statements are recorded in RELICENSE.md. Permission was granted in addition to the GPL, so copies obtained under the GPL keep their GPL terms. Only comment blocks change here, and an SPDX-License-Identifier line is added to each file. Five files still described themselves as part of transcode, where they were written many years ago; they say vid.stab now.
LICENSE paraphrased the GPL; it now states the licence and what it asks. RELICENSE.md records why the library moved to the LGPL and links the permission each copyright holder gave in issue #165.
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Moves vid.stab from GPL-2.0-or-later to LGPL-2.1-or-later.
Closes #165.
Why
vid.stab is a library, and the GPL forced every application linking it to be GPL as well. Concretely, ffmpeg can only build
vidstabdetectandvidstabtransformunder--enable-gpl, so most distributed ffmpeg builds ship with no video stabilization at all. The LGPL lets an application link vid.stab without taking on its licence, while modifications to vid.stab itself must still be published under the LGPL — the reciprocity that actually matters for a library.Consent
Every contributor with code in
src/agreed in #165. The statements are recorded inRELICENSE.mdwith a permalink each:Permission was granted in addition to the GPL, so copies already obtained under the GPL keep their GPL terms; nothing is revoked.
What changed
src/*.[ch]— all 40 files: licence blocks rewritten to the LGPL, plus anSPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-laterline. Comments only. Five files still described themselves as part of transcode, where they originated; they name vid.stab now.COPYING.LESSER— the verbatim FSF text. The repository carried no licence text at all before, only a paraphrase inLICENSE.LICENSE— states the licence and what it asks, instead of paraphrasing the GPL.RELICENSE.md— new; the reasoning and the permissions.README.md,Changelog— updated.With transcode and the vendored sse2neon.h removed in #175, the tree is under a single licence, so no GPL or MIT text is shipped alongside.
Verified: builds clean and 35/35 unit tests pass — the source changes are comments.
Merge order
Stacked on #175, which is stacked on #171. Merge those two first; GitHub retargets this PR to
masteras they land.🤖 Generated with Claude Code