LGPL license violation reported by upstream FFmpeg

[nyanmisaka]

Upstream FFmpeg on Twitter reported an LGPL license violation in MPP's code. If this was due to an oversight, it's best to correct it promptly to avoid further harming Rockchip's reputation in the open source community.

Hey @IloveRockchip , blatantly copy and pasting FFmpeg code into your driver and changing the licence in violation of the LGPL is not cool: https://github.com/rockchip-linux/mpp/blob/fdeb8c378b79d4b4ef80457e4431815de89dc417/mpp/codec/dec/av1/av1d_cbs.c

• https://twitter.com/ffmpeg/status/1761005762233413654

[JoshuaDoes]

I should note, if the project contributors are aware of any other misuse of licensed open source code, it's best to include removing or fixing those areas too. Chances are this isn't the only example, if that were the case.

[elenril]

From a brief look, I see a large number of clear violations. At least

• mpp/codec/dec/av1/av1d_codec.h
• mpp/codec/dec/av1/av1d_cbs.c
• mpp/codec/dec/av1/av1d_cbs.h
• mpp/codec/dec/av1/av1d_parser2_syntax.c
• mpp/codec/dec/h265/h265d_codec.h
• mpp/codec/dec/h265/h265d_parser.c
• mpp/codec/dec/h265/h265d_ps.c
• mpp/codec/dec/vp9/vp9d_codec.h
• mpp/codec/dec/vp9/vp9d_parser.c
• mpp/codec/dec/vp9/vp9data.h
• mpp/codec/dec/vp9/vpx_rac.c
• mpp/codec/dec/vp9/vpx_rac.h

are clearly derived from libavcodec source code, as is obvious from the same code structure and naming, identical comments in the code, and sometimes even references to av_* functions and libavcodec.

[nyanmisaka]

This violation was caused by the developer's insufficient understanding of the compatibility between licenses. They apologized deeply and said they would fix it as soon as possible and strengthen their learning about open source licenses. They also thank the open source community for pointing these out and welcome any suggestions and guidance.

https://twitter.com/HermanChen1982/status/1761231278962364815 commented by @HermanChen at Rockchip

[hbiyik]

So new release, still no change, or the changes pushed not counted as release:)

[nyanmisaka]

So new release, still no change, or the changes pushed not counted as release:)

Where’s the new release? IMHO they use tag as public release.

https://github.com/rockchip-linux/mpp/tags

[hbiyik]

Yeah there was bunch of new commits in the repo i thought it was a realease, seems not. Still im oss policing around :)

[HermanChen]

So far we are fixing rk3576 issues. Quit a busy time. The license issue is delayed.

[hbiyik]

so still not doing anything about it?

[ramiropolla]

So far we are fixing rk3576 issues. Quit a busy time. The license issue is delayed.

Please fix this license violation as soon as possible (it should be top priority, above any other issues you have), otherwise we will have to issue a takedown request to github.

[wenyue7]

Thank you for your kind reminder, we are working on it

[HermanChen]

The hevc, vp9 and av1 code will be fixed.

[nosoul78]

Please fix this license violation as soon as possible (it should be top priority, above any other issues you have), otherwise we will have to issue a takedown request to github.

@ramiropolla FWIW they've had over 5 months to CTRL+H the misleading licenses.

I find it...interesting how people still bother to do free work for this kind of hardware (after so so many years) when this is all they get in return.