Microsoft opens a "high priority" bug ticket in ffmpeg, attempting to leech the free labour of the maintainers

Sibbo@sopuli.xyz to Programming@programming.dev – 1046 points –
trac.ffmpeg.org

Microsoft employee:

Hi, This is a high priority ticket and the FFmpeg version is currently used in a highly visible product in Microsoft. We have customers experience issues with Caption during Teams Live Event. Please help

Maintainer's comment on twitter:

After politely requesting a support contract from Microsoft for long term maintenance, they offered a one-time payment of a few thousand dollars instead.

This is unacceptable.

And further:

The lesson from the xz fiasco is that investments in maintenance and sustainability are unsexy and probably won't get a middle manager their promotion but pay off a thousandfold over many years.

But try selling that to a bean counter

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Old issue, so why post it now make it sound like MS demands something?

Opened 11 months ago Last modified 11 months ago

It's a regression, so ffmpeg should fix a regression.

Old issue, so why post it now make it sound like MS demands something?

I think it's because of that recent security issue, and then the subject of corporations tithing into open source code efforts instead of just using it for freeish, that grew around the discussion of that security vulnerability.