FAAD2 - Is this legal?

[gastorgrab]

I just downloaded the latest "FAAD2.exe" from RareWares. On opening from a command prompt i noticed this;

*********** Ahead Software MPEG-4 AAC Decoder V2.1 beta ******************

Build: Apr 22 2004
Copyright 2002-2004: Ahead Software AG
http://www.audiocoding.com
Floating point version

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

************************************************** ************************

Is this donated code from Ahead Software?

[adam]

Is this donated code from Ahead Software?

Essentially yes. GNU allows you to release code to the public on the conditition that if anyone re-distributes any part of that code, they must give credit to the original author and continue to keep it open source, by both releasing the original source code as well as the source code of any modified version of it. GNU is a fairly common public license these days. It allows others to incorporate the code into their own software, as well as expand on the existing code.

EDITED: Just thought I should add that what I said only applies to this software if Ahead did, in fact, release it under GNU. I could see someone modifying proprietary software to pop up a little GNU disclaimer to make it look like what they were distributing was legal when it actually wasnt. I'm not familiar with rarewares.com but it doesn't necessarily sound like the most reputable site just from looking at the name.

But even large companies like Ahead do release things under GNU which are freely distributable.

[pyrohydra]

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[gastorgrab]

http://www.rarewares.org/about.html

I'm guessing that releasing the decoder under GNU is a way of increasing the compatibility of their encoder in the community.

Good for them AND good for us.

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