| Developer(s) | Jörg Schilling |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 3.0 / 2 June 2010 |
| Preview release | 3.01a06 / 14 September 2011 |
| Operating system | cross-platform |
| Type | CD/DVD/BluRay-writing |
| License | CDDL, GPL |
| Website | cdrecord.berlios.de/private/cdrecord.html |
cdrtools (formerly known as cdrecord) is a collection of independent projects of free software/open source computer programs, created by Jörg Schilling and others under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
The most important parts of the package are cdrecord, a console-based burning program; cdda2wav, a CD audio ripper that uses libparanoia; and mkisofs, a CD filesystem image creator. Because these tools don't include any GUI, many graphical front-ends have been created (see Software that can use cdrtools section).
Contents |
The collection includes many features, such as:
The project was originally licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
In versions starting with 2.01.01a09, most code from cdrtools has been relicensed under the CDDL,[1] which the Free Software Foundation considers incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL),[2] while other parts, such as mkisofs, are still licensed under the GPL. Jonathan Corbet, founder of the LWN.net news source argued this change makes it impossible to legally distribute cdrtools binaries.[3] However several lawyers [4][5][6] have argued that combinations with software under GPL and other different licenses usually are collective works, to which the rules in the GPL about derivative works may not apply.
Debian,[7] Red Hat,[8][9] and Mandriva[10] dropped the versions of cdrtools with CDDL code from their distributions. The Debian project created cdrkit, a fork of cdrtools.[11] In August 2008, Mark Shuttleworth offered to ask the Software Freedom Law Center for a legal opinion on whether cdrtools could be included in Ubuntu, provided Schilling agreed to accept the opinion.[12]
Since the licensing change, cdrtools added some bug fixes and new features, such as the ability to use UTF-8 with mkisofs, create multi extent files (> 4 GB) with mkisofs, create correct hard links with mkisofs, and write Blu-ray discs.
|
||||||||||||||||||||