The principal licence for Dirac is the
Mozilla Public Licence (MPL). This grants the rights to reproduce,
modify, display, perform, sublicense and distribute the code, and
to make use of technology patented by the contributors and embodied
in the code, free of charge. It also requires contributors not
to enforce patent claims related to their contributions against
each other. It allows the initial developer to make provision for
relicensing the code.
If we find that the MPL is an impediment to free and open use
of Dirac then we will be happy to consider using alternative or
additional licences to achieve its widespread, royalty free use.
The BBC has chosen to allow relicensing of Dirac under two licences.
The first of these if the GNU General Public Licence (GPL), which
allows copying, distribution and modification of the code, provided
that modified versions are distributed on like terms, and are not
patent-encumbered. The second is the GNU Lesser General Public
Licence, which also allows for the technology to be incorporated
into commercial products.
This choice of licences is intended to make Dirac useful to as
many different users as possible. Those wishing to use Dirac as
it stands, or contribute to its further development, will find
the MPL appropriate. Those wishing to incorporate Dirac into their
own Open Source projects may wish to use either the MPL or the
GPL. For those wishing to create commercial products using Dirac,
the LGPL will be most useful.
Further information can be found at http://dirac.sourceforge.net/licences.html including
links to the full texts of these licences.
Advantages of Open Source
Dirac's Open Source development and licensing provides advantages
for all potential users.
Advantages for Consumers
Dirac incurs no licence cost to the end user, hidden or otherwise.
Advantages to Content Providers
There are compelling economic reasons for content providers
to adopt a free, Open Source codec. Any organisation wishing to
serve large volumes of video content will find the use of Dirac
a significant cost saving. This was part of the BBC's initial motivation
for developing Dirac. It also avoids the bureaucratic licensing
conditions associated with proprietary codecs, which can require
different licensing arrangements for providing the same content
by different mechanisms. Open technology is particularly suitable
for archiving, as it cannot be made obsolete by withdrawal of support.
Advantages for Developers
Participation in Dirac has many advantages for developers.
They gain access to state-of the art video coding technology, and
become members of a broad community of developers. Members of this
community can publish and gain credit for their work, and this
in turn encourages peer-review of their contributions. They also
have the ability to adapt the technology to their own specialist
needs.
Advantages for Equipment Manufacturers
As no licence fee is charged for any of the intellectual property
embodied in Dirac, equipment manufacturers will be able to produce
competitively-priced products embodying the technology, under the
terms of the LGPL. |
