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- This change of license was an initiative started by some of VLC's main developers and is a move from the current license (GPLv2 or later) to the LGPLv2.1 or later license. This change was motivated to match the evolution of the video industry and to spread the VLC engine as a multi-platform open-source multimedia engine and library.
www.videolan.org/press/lgpl-libvlc.html
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Why did VLC change its license?
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Can I use vlcj without complying with the GPL?
Will VLC relicensing affect normal users?
Does VLC require copyright assignment?
VLC is part of the VideoLAN project and is developed and supported by a community of volunteers. The VideoLAN project was started at the university École Centrale Paris who relicensed VLC under the GPLv2 license in February 2001. Since then, VLC has been downloaded billions of times.
No, LGPL is definitely open source. You can see a list of OSI-approved open source licenses here - LGPL is on the list under the name "GNU Library or 'Lesser' General Public License version 3.0 (LGPL-3.0)".
Nov 21, 2012 · Case in point: the VLC media player has recently been relicensed under LGPLv2.1+, an undertaking that required project lead Jean-Baptiste Kempf to track down more than 230 individual developers for their personal authorization for the move.
Nov 29, 2012 · Update (2012-11-30): It's been pointed out to me that VLC has relegated certain code from VLC into a library called libVLC, and that's the code that's been relicensed. I've made today changes to the post above to clarify that issue.
However, if the library is licensed under the LGPL (and you follow certain guidelines) then you are free to use it in your application, no matter what license you choose for the combined whole -- even proprietary/closed source.
Nov 17, 2012 · Jean-Baptiste Kempf of the VLC project explains that “most of the code of VLC” has been relicensed under the LGPL, moving away from the GPL.
