Plex opt out and Licences (violation of the GPL!!!)

Hi Plex Team,

While thinking about all the policy changes i took a look at the licences you use…

the Server and a Lot of Clients habe GPL Code and Licences in IT (i hope u know what that means in Term of dropping the Sourcecode of all “infected” Softwarepaket)

So im asking on the behave of all users and maybe future developers of a plex/emby like solution , WHERE IS THE SOURCEDROP OF YOUR SOFTWARE, at least the Parts which make use of gpl Projekts???

Also removing this parts now, does Not change the fact that this has to be done for all Code that was and is out there.

Dont get me wrong this time, this is not a request, THIS IS YOUR DUTY!!!

Provider us with a sourcedrop of all Your complete Software where gpl is/was used.
To be clear im speaking of the whole Server and the clients which uses Gpl.

Btw this should have been done a long time ago!

@retro1982

Step 1: https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2016/fall/the-role-of-lawsuits-in-gpl-compliance

Step 2: find historical development repos that some that contributed to this project might still have from serveral years ago

Step 3: FORK IT

A long time ago, code actually got published which was under GPL license. The server never had any so there was nothing to share at all, only the old client, which was based on code from XBMC (nowadays Kodi). The new client isn’t based on anything, so yet again, nothing to share as far as I know. :slight_smile:

@retro1982 Maybe I do not quite understand what you mean. If so, could you be more specific about which parts should be shared according to you?

@CptChaos if a Software uses libraries or code which is puplished under the GPL the resulting Projekt/Software has to be published under the GPL. This is what the GPL is all about. According to the plex licences the Server and most of the clients have gpl Software in it, so the resulting Software, in that case the plex server and the clients have to be published in source Form and be accessable for everyone.

This is standard Gpl, and the law, i cant belive they dont know that!!!

@retro1982 said:
@CptChaos if a Software uses libraries or code which is puplished under the GPL the resulting Projekt/Software has to be published under the GPL. This is what the GPL is all about. According to the plex licences the Server and most of the clients have gpl Software in it, so the resulting Software, in that case the plex server and the clients have to be published in source Form and be accessable for everyone.

This is standard Gpl, and the law, i cant belive they dont know that!!!

Accessible to everyone. You mean like this:
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/204096476-License-Information

Yes but thats only the licences, as you can see there there are parts gpl and for that the whole sourecode has to be accessable to anyone, not only the licences! This is what the gpl demands!

Oh, you mean this:

Sort of, maybe im blind, but i cannot find the sources of the actual plex Server …

@retro1982 said:
Sort of,.maybe im blind, but i cannot find the sources of the actual plex Server …

why would you? It’s their code and closed source.

Lol no its not, they are using gpl code inside their App and therefore THEY HAVE TO put their Code under the gpl (the whole thing) and make it public. If they didnot want that they should never have used gpl libs or Software.

For all please read the gpl (General Public Licence) and talk with ur lawers if you dont understand, but the GPL is absolut clear about this!

have you read the license file distributed with PMS?

They have been taken to task on this before and found to be complaint. There is nothing to see here, you just need a better understanding of what parts they do use and modify and to assume less.

Yes i have and whats important are the licences of the parts used (for the server its the libfribidi and it is Part of the Server(they state this themself)). So what to use here is the gpl, which states clearly that a whole resulting product (here the pms Server) has to be under the gpl itself and therefore been published.

So back to the Start, read the gpl, understand it and then speak again.

And again they can state what they want, if there is a violation, it does not vanish if they played thumb and say its all ok.

Start to think yourself man.

The GPL is viral in nature (copyleft) so if you use or extend GPL-ed software then you are required to GPL your derived work.

As simple as it can get … If you cant read that out of the GPL, stop talking about that or talk with your lawyer. I hope you have nothing to do with software or the law … Otherwise all your projects may violate the GPL!

@elan can i/we have a statement or clearification from plex? I think the gpl is clear on that and leaves no room for interpretation.

@retro1982 said:
@elan can i/we have a statement or clearification from plex? I think the gpl is clear on that and leaves no room for interpretation.

they have - search is your friend - they don’t need to keep repeating the same statements over and over everytime someone new thinks they’ve seen the same white whale.

it you believe you have found a GPL issue then report it through the process, banging about on a forum where you’ll be ignored wont get you anywhere.

The wrong license is listed. GNU FriBiDi/libfribidi is LGPL not GPL, linking is fine.

cgit.freedesktop.org/fribidi/fribidi/tree/COPYING

The only issue really is the plex transcoder which uses FFMpeg. Though that programs source is “supposedly” available, most links seem dead/extremely outdated.

@tobytl said:
The wrong license is listed. GNU FriBiDi/libfribidi is LGPL not GPL, linking is fine.

cgit.freedesktop.org/fribidi/fribidi/tree/COPYING

The only issue really is the plex transcoder which uses FFMpeg. Though that programs source is “supposedly” available, most links seem dead/extremely outdated.

Ok that chances everything, so they have a terrible wrong license listing which should be corrected!

Thx for clearification and a productive post unlike @trudge.

@elan Hi again, please update ur licence Info Page! There is stated that your Project is using 2 gpl Projekts, where in fact they are LGPL!