How to Write a Video Player in Less Than 1000 Lines
CAREFUL with ffmpeg!<p>Their license is DRACONIAN, and they are nasty about enforcing it.<p>Their legal page even suggests (or should I say, demands) additional provisions above and beyond what the LGPL asks for (i.e. &quot;There are also a few items that are not really related to LGPL compliance but are good ideas anyway&quot;):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ffmpeg.org&#x2F;legal.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ffmpeg.org&#x2F;legal.html</a><p>If they catch you violating their LGPL license, they act very antagonistically to you -- as in, they are completely unwilling to work with you by taking the hard line stance that the only way you can appease them and comply with their license is to release your source code.<p>They even once had a Hall of Shame where they publicly called out offenders:
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;comments&#x2F;9e25a&#x2F;hall_of_shame_a_list_of_projects_or_companies&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;comments&#x2F;9e25a&#x2F;hall_of_shame_a_list_o...</a><p>LGPL means no static linking, so using ffmpeg in your closed source Android&#x2F;iOS apps is already completely ruled out of the picture.<p>I mean, it&#x27;s well within their rights to impose whatever license they want on their software, but you shouldn&#x27;t think that using ffmpeg in any closed source or commercial software is a good idea.<p>EDIT: I think it&#x27;s worth mentioning that none of this comes from personal experience. :)