NOTICE: This software (or technical data) was produced for the U.S. Government under contract, and is subject to the Rights in Data-General Clause 52.227-14, Alt. IV (DEC 2007). Copyright 2023 The MITRE Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

License Considerations

We are not lawyers and provide this information to the best of our ability in an attempt to honor all licensing agreements and clarify the potential responsibilities of OpenMPF users.

Open Source

The Open Media Processing Framework (OpenMPF) source code is publicly available on GitHub. By distributing the OpenMPF software as raw source code the development team is able to keep most of the software clean from copyleft and patent issues so that it can be published under a more open Apache 2.0 license and freely distributed to interested parties.

IMPORTANT: It is the responsibility of the end users who build the OpenMPF software to abide by all of the non-commercial and re-distribution restrictions imposed by the dependencies that the OpenMPF software uses. Building OpenMPF and linking in these dependencies at build time or run time may result in creating a derivative work under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Refer to Acknowledgements for more information about these dependencies.

Docker Distribution

The OpenMPF Docker images are released under GPLv2, unless otherwise stated.

ffmpeg-devel Integration

The software in the Workflow Manager image, and most C++ component images, is dynamically linked with a version of OpenCV that is in turn linked with a version of ffmpeg-devel built with --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265. Distribution of software that includes the latter two encoders must be released under GPLv2 and cannot be used commercially without obtaining the appropriate licenses from x264 LLC / CoreCodec or MulticoreWare. See here for more information.

Note that the OpenMPF core is built with, but does not require, the x264 or x265 encoders. In some cases, such as when generating video markup, users have the option to use x264, or an alternative encoder such as vp9 or mjpeg.

Usage Royalties

x264 and x256 Encoders

If someone uses a component that makes use of the x264 or x256 encoders in FFmpeg for commercial applications, then that person should obtain the appropriate licenses from x264 LLC / CoreCodec or MulticoreWare, respectively.

"h264" and "hevc" Decoders

FFmpeg comes bundled with its own native "h264" and "hevc" decoders, which OpenMPF may use depending on the media types provided when creating jobs. Although released under LGPL, use of these decoders for commercial applications may still require the payment of royalties to patent holders. The FFmpeg group states on their Legal page:

Q: Does FFmpeg use patented algorithms?

A: We do not know, we are not lawyers so we are not qualified to answer this. Also we have never read patents to implement any part of FFmpeg, so even if we were qualified we could not answer it as we do not know what is patented.

There have been cases where companies have used FFmpeg in their products. These companies found out that once you start trying to make money from patented technologies, the owners of the patents will come after their licensing fees. Notably, MPEG LA is vigilant and diligent about collecting for MPEG-related technologies.