I first asked here and got no response about this: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1164703.html media-libs/mesa with USE="proprietary-codecs" is installed by portage with the default ACCEPT_LICENSE, which AFAIK is @FREE. From the name of the USE flag, I assume it's some proprietary code that is shipped as binaries. In that case, shouldn't portage complain it if it has a non-free license?
Some distros decided that they should remove hardware acceleration for "non-free" codecs (think a bit like refusing to use your GPU because it's proprietary), but the code itself that support these can be considered free as far as I can tell. Interpretations may vary. Gentoo still gives the option for anyone that want to do the same, but IMO is kind of silly and may as well stay default.
(In reply to Ionen Wolkens from comment #1) > Some distros decided that they should remove hardware acceleration for > "non-free" codecs (think a bit like refusing to use your GPU because it's > proprietary), but the code itself that support these can be considered free > as far as I can tell. Interpretations may vary. > > Gentoo still gives the option for anyone that want to do the same, but IMO > is kind of silly and may as well stay default. So no proprietary code is enabled by USE=proprietary-codecs? In that case it's fine. Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly are those proprietary codecs? My videos, which are h264 and hevc, play fine, so I guess it's not these.
(In reply to stefan11111 from comment #2) > Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly are those proprietary codecs? > My videos, which are h264 and hevc, play fine, so I guess it's not these. It's not going to stop them from being usable with software or with nvidia-drivers' hwaccel (which does not go through mesa for this w/ vdpau and nvdec/cuda), you'd need to disable h264 and hevc on everything (incl. ffmpeg). From mesa's meson_options.txt: option( 'video-codecs', type : 'array', value : [], choices: [ 'vc1dec', 'h264dec', 'h264enc', 'h265dec', 'h265enc' ], description : 'List of patent encumbered codecs to build support for. ' + 'Distros might want to consult their legal department before ' + 'enabling these. This is used for all video APIs (vaapi, ' + 'vdpau, vulkan). Non-patent encumbered codecs will be ' + 'enabled by default.' ) From the ebuild: -Dvideo-codecs=$(usex proprietary-codecs "h264dec,h264enc,h265dec,h265enc,vc1dec" "")
> I assume it's some proprietary code that is shipped as binaries. In that case, > shouldn't portage complain it if it has a non-free license? Your assumption is wrong. > Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly are those proprietary codecs? > My videos, which are h264 and hevc, play fine, so I guess it's not these. Read the ebuild.
