this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2026
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It was an embedded system. The user wouldn't be able to download and install stuff, they just turn the thing on. The ffmpeg libraries were provided as is as separate files in the system.
If that's their policy, ok. But it means we can't use it in embedded systems.
@CannonFodder Policy? It's the legal license you agreed to when you copied their code. It's not like they rug pulled you; it's open, and you should have read it before you even started. If you are commercial, look into FOSSA; you need an SCA for license compliance. Your way around this for LGPL was to make a fork and then compile the fork and use those compiled libraries if you needed airgapped. The moment anything touches that code, like if you static link all code that is touching it now needs to now be public too. If you dynamically link as long as the full code for that file is open you're covered.
I'm actually baffled you didn't even bother reading their license for a commercial product and chalked it up to they have some policy.
We switched to dynamic libraries, but they still wouldn't let it go. It seemed a distinction without a difference, but we did it as we thought it would put us in the clear. And yes it should have, but little of this has actually been tested in court. So smaller companies can't risk the huge legal cost, even if they know they're in the right. So ffmpeg killed the project for no good reason - like I said: they're assholes. And I don't think forking it would have made any difference, the fork is still covered by the same license. The project was still just a prototype , but with ffmpeg's harassment we dropped it and used something else for subsequent projects. When we actually touch open source code usefully, we always share it even if we never make a product that uses it.
@CannonFodder The switching of your linking afterward doesn't change the requirement you violated and needed to comply with, which was to open source the code that touched it.
No, it wouldn't and shouldn't have just dropped all the required because you complied when caught; this is equivalent to saying you parked in a handicap spot and then, when asked, moved your car and said you expected not to get fined now and the police are harassing you for such.
I get the frustration, but I know as a business owner you wouldn't sign a legal document without reading it or understanding what you're setting yourself up for. Yet this seems to be exactly your process with software licenses. You need a Software Composition Analysis (SCA) if you do not have the time or the energy to read the licenses; this will prevent you from falling into the same hole.
PS: this has been heavily tried in court look at QT LPGL licensing enforcement cases this is a known license and known requirements.
#foss #opensource #licensing