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Publisher · Open source

VideoLAN

VideoLAN is a French non-profit organisation that develops VLC media player, the libVLC engine and related multimedia projects such as x264. Its software is released under open-source licences, mainly the GNU GPL and LGPL.

Licensing at a Glance

  • Open source

  1. VideoLAN states there are no usage restrictions on its software: it may be used for personal, educational, professional, governmental or any other purpose within the law.[1]

  2. Most VideoLAN software is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2, and each product ships a COPYING licence file; redistribution requires complying with the licence, for example by supplying source code.[2]

  3. VLC is released under the GPLv2 or later; the README notes that on some platforms it is effectively GPLv3 because of the licences of its dependencies.[3]

  4. The libVLC engine is released under the LGPL version 2.1 (or later), which allows it to be embedded in applications licensed under other terms.[4]

  5. VideoLAN forbids use of its trademarks (VideoLAN, VLC, the cone logo, x264 and others) to distribute, advertise or sell software or hardware that is not under an OSI open-source licence.[5]

Products

References

  1. Legal - VideoLAN · videolan.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
  2. Legal - VideoLAN · videolan.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
  3. VLC README.md (VideoLAN GitLab) · code.videolan.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
  4. libVLC media player, Open Source video framework for every OS! - VideoLAN · videolan.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
  5. Legal - VideoLAN · videolan.org · effective 2025-10 · retrieved 2026-09-27
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