Re: [rtcweb] Cisco to open source its H.264 implementation and absorb MPEG-LA licensing fees

[Basil Mohamed Gohar <[e-mail]>]

On 12/12/2013 08:12 PM, Jack Moffitt wrote:
>> The thing that is hard is making a compile match an existing binary when you don't really know how the original binary was compiled. The plan here is to exactly describe the process that Cisco uses to compile (which linux distro, which version, which compiler version etc, all the build scripts etc). Then any external group, such as Mozilla, can replicate theses instructions and get the same binary. I do realize that if you build the same code on even very similar systems, you may get a different binary. I realize it is not trivial to get this to all happen but we are confident it can be done.
> 
> This sounds very fragile. Why not just create a public EC2 image that
> can build the code, and then everyone will have the same setup and it
> will be easy to replicate. Or even better, just a standard chef or
> puppet script that uses a well known stock public EC2 AMI.
> 
> jack.

I know it might sound like a lot of work, but this idea actually makes a
lot of sense and goes a long way toward resolving any ambiguities and
will make the reproduceability of the binaries all the more easier to
confirm.  And it will basically take away almost any claim the Cisco or
other parties are trying to be insidious with their binary offer.

The chef/puppet script idea is actully really swell because it will show
the exact system configuration used to produce the build.

This might add more work than planned for Cisco, but it definitely will
pay off in the long run.  These could even be community-developed, as
long as Cisco made it clear which ones they used.

For example, for Fedora, there's already a very healthy community for
self-building packages, so this openness would be embraced readily by
many such users in Fedora as well as the greater "Enterprise Linux"
community (e.g., RHEL, CentOS, Scientific Linux, etc.).  Most likely,
members from this community would contribute their experience in
preparing these configuration scripts and Cisco can kickstart their
building for that platform.

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