FFmpeg as SPI associated project

Hi all. FFmpeg has applied to become an SPI Associated project. Comments
and questions are welcome.

I support and am sponsoring this application because:

* FFmpeg is a genuine Free Software community project:

FFmpeg is released under the GPL or LGPL licenses depending on
the choice of configuration options.

* FFmpeg has an established development community and history of software
releases.

The initial release of FFmpeg was in December 2000 and the project
continues to be actively developed.

* FFmpeg is used by a broad audience:

FFmpeg is widely used on Linux, Microsoft Windows and many other operating
systems both as a standalone tool and as part of other applications.

The resolution below is proposed to be submitted to the June 14 board
meeting:

SPI resolution 2012-05-25.rtb.1

WHEREAS

1. FFmpeg is a substantial and significant Free Software project.

2. The FFmpeg developers would like SPI's support and assistance,
including taking Donations, Holding Funds and legal assistance.

THE SPI BOARD RESOLVES THAT

3. FFmpeg is formally invited to become an SPI Associated Project,
according to the SPI Framework for Associated Projects, SPI Resolution
1998-11-16.iwj.1-amended-2004-08-10.iwj.1, a copy of which can be found
at http://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/resolutions/2004/2004-08-10.iwj.1/

4. Stefano Sabatini is recognised by SPI as the authoritative decision
maker and SPI liaison for FFmpeg. Successors will be appointed
following a concensus on the ffmpeg-devel(at)ffmpeg(dot)org mailing list. If
a concensus cannot be achieved an election for the SPI liaison will be
held among members of the ffmpeg-devel(at)ffmpeg(dot)org mailing list.

5. This invitation will lapse, if not accepted, 60 days after it is
approved by the SPI Board.

Full text of application for SPI associated project status:

--- Begin Application ---

Name and details of the project
===============================

The FFmpeg project was founded in 2000 by Fabrice Bellard, who is
also the trademark holder.

Website: http://www.ffmpeg.org/

FFmpeg aims to provide a complete, cross-platform solution to
multimedia processing including decoding, encoding, demuxing, muxing,
streaming, filtering, metadata processing, etc.

It comprises both a commandline toolset (ffmpeg, ffplay, ffprobe,
ffserver) and several libraries. For more info, check:
http://ffmpeg.org/about.html

FFmpeg currently supports a huge number of components, notably a large
number of codecs (more or less known), some of which have been reverse
engineered by FFmpeg developers. Furthermore some formats have been
designed and implemented within FFmpeg, in particular the NUT
container, and the FFV1 and Snow codecs.

FFmpeg aims to support formats and features natively, for example when
there is no active free software project providing support in a given
area, but relies on external libraries (e.g. libmp3lame, libx264) when
it makes sense.

FFmpeg is free software licensed under the LGPL or GPL depending on
the choice of configuration options.

FFmpeg is used by a large number of multimedia FLOSS projects
(e.g. MPlayer, VLC, Chromium, Blender etc., see
http://ffmpeg.org/projects.html for a more comprehensive list), and is
used as backend in a large number of multimedia website conversion
services (possibly including Google Video, Facebook and YouTube), and
is shipped by many Linux distros, for example Fedora and Centos. See:
http://distrowatch.com/search.php?pkg=ffmpeg&pkgver=#pkgsearch
for an indepth survey.

The Windows platform is supported through MinGW, and daily Windows
builds are provided by third parties like for example:
http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/

At the beginning of 2011 a group of developers created a fork which
was named Libav (for the fine details read the March 15, 2011 news
entry on ffmpeg.org). Most Libav changes are merged regularly into
FFmpeg.

Which SPI services will be needed
=================================

We request the following services to SPI:

- Accepting Donations and Holding Funds on behalf of FFmpeg
- Legal Assistance

In case of need we reserve the possibility to ask for other services.

Who is going to be the liaison to SPI, and the process for selecting/electing replacements
==========================================================================================

I, Stefano Sabatini, am going to assume the role of liaison while this
application is processed.

In case of application approval, the liaison will be chosen over
agreement on the public ffmpeg-devel mailing list. In case a consensus
can't be reached we'll establish a vote for electing the liaison, and
we will delay expense/refund approvals until we get a proper consensus
on the liaison choice or election.

The liaison mandate will last a fixed period, orientatively one year,
at the end of which we will run a new selection process. The liaison
role change will be promptly notified to SPI.

Every refund request will be posted to the project public development
mailing list (ffmpeg-devel(at)ffmpeg(dot)org) and can be discussed by the
developers and other interested parties, it's also possible for the
project maintainer (currently Michael Niedermayer) to veto a request
before 7 days have passed since the liaison approval.

Every refund request sent by the liaison will have a link to the
public discussion, so SPI can check that the issue was public 7 days
ago at least and it has not received a veto, or it has been explicitly
approved so it can be considered valid.

--- End Application ---

Thanks,

Rob

--
Director, Software in the Public Interest, Inc.
Email: robert(at)spi-inc(dot)org Linux counter ID #16440
IRC: Solver (OFTC & Freenode)
Web: http://www.spi-inc.org
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