mpv is a fork of mplayer2, which is a fork of MPlayer.

mpv as a whole is licensed as GPL version 2 or later (see LICENSE). Most source
files are GPLv2+, but some files are available under a more liberal license,
such as LGPLv2.1+, BSD, MIT, ISC, and possibly others. Look at the copyright
header of each source file, and grep the sources for "Copyright" if you need
to know details. C source files without Copyright notice are licensed as
LGPLv2.1+. Also see the list of files with specific licenses below (not all
files can have a standard license header).

All new contributions must be LGPLv2.1+ licensed, or if the changes are done on
GPL code, must come with the implicit agreement that the project can relicense
the code to LGPLv2.1+ at a later point without asking the contributor. (This
is a safeguard for making potential relicensing of the project to LGPLv2.1+
easier.) Using a more liberal license compatible to LGPLv2.1+ is also ok.

For information about authors and contributors, consult the git log, which
contains the complete SVN and CVS history as well.

Note that mplayer2 as a whole is licensed under GPLv3+. This is because it uses
a copy of talloc (part of Samba), which is LGPLv3+, and the next compatible
license for this mix is GPLv3+.

MPlayer as a whole is licensed under GPLv2 (incompatible to GPLv3!), because
some files are licensed to GPLv2 (and _not_ any later version of the license).
In particular, this affects the file libmpdemux/demux_ty_osd.c. It is disabled
under mplayer2, and has been removed from mpv.

"v2.1+" in this context means "version 2.1 or later".

Some libraries are GPLv2+ or GPLv3+ only. Building mpv with Samba support makes
it GPLv3+.

Source files with specific licenses:
- etc/input.conf is LGPLv2.1+
- etc/builtin.conf is LGPLv2.1+
- etc/encoding-profiles.conf is LGPLv2.1+
- all mpv icons and derived files are LGPLv2.1+ (mpv-icon-8bit-16x16.png etc.)
- everything else under etc/ is unknown
- everything under DOCS/man/ is GPLv2+
- sub/osd_font.otf is LGPLv2.1+
- version.sh is LGPLv2+
- bootstrap.py is unknown (probably GPLv2+ or LGPLv2+)
- the build system (wscript, waftools/*) is LGPLv2+, some parts BSD

Some files are marked with "Almost LGPL." These files are GPL, but all authors
have agreed to relicense them to LGPL. the problem is that one of the authors is
Michael Niedermayer, who cited the following conditions for relicensing:

  http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-dev-eng/2016-September/073535.html

We assume the first 3 conditions are fulfilled. The last condition can be
interpreted as that his code can be changed to LGPL only as soon as the "core"
of mpv changes to LGPL. We interpret "core" as something minimal, that can
actually be built and run, with all GPL code disabled.

Some files are LGPLv3+. This is due to the contributions of a single developer
going by the SVN username "iive". The chosen license of this project is
LGPLv2.1+. The affected files will be changed to LGPLv2.1+ at the earliest
opportunity, for example if his contributions disappear by being replaced
or removed. All new contributions to these files are implied to be LGPLv2.1+.

LGPL relicensing status. Files which require some sort of action to get a basic
LGPL player core (relicensing, replacement, or partial/full rewrites) are marked
with an "x".

    audio/decode/ad.h               LGPL
    audio/decode/ad_lavc.c          LGPL
    audio/decode/ad_spdif.c         LGPL
    audio/decode/dec_audio.*        LGPL
x   audio/filter/af.*               must be killed (main author disagreed)
        (required for LGPL core: a new filter chain must be written)
    audio/filter/af_channel.c       must be killed (main author disagreed)
    audio/filter/af_equalizer.c     must be killed (main author disagreed)
    audio/filter/af_pan.c           must be killed (main author disagreed)
    audio/filter/af_volume.c        must be killed (main author disagreed)
    audio/filter/equalizer.h        must be killed (main author disagreed)
    audio/filter/tools.c            must be killed (main author disagreed)
    audio/filter/af_format.c        LGPL
    audio/filter/af_lavc3enc.c      LGPL
    audio/filter/af_lavfi.c         LGPL
    audio/filter/af_scaletempo.c    LGPL
    audio/filter/af_rubberband.c    LGPL
    audio/out/ao.c                  LGPL
    audio/out/ao.h                  LGPL
    audio/out/ao_alsa.c             extremely hard (original author did not decide)
    audio/out/ao_audiounit.m        LGPL
    audio/out/ao_coreaudio.c        LGPL
    audio/out/ao_coreaudio_chmap.c  LGPL
    audio/out/ao_coreaudio_chmap.h  LGPL
    audio/out/ao_coreaudio_exclusiv LGPL
    audio/out/ao_coreaudio_properti LGPL
    audio/out/ao_coreaudio_properti LGPL
    audio/out/ao_coreaudio_utils.c  LGPL
    audio/out/ao_coreaudio_utils.h  LGPL
    audio/out/ao_jack.c             will stay GPL
    audio/out/ao_lavc.c             LGPL
    audio/out/ao_null.c             LGPL
    audio/out/ao_openal.c           LGPL
    audio/out/ao_opensles.c         LGPL
    audio/out/ao_oss.c              will stay GPL
    audio/out/ao_pcm.c              LGPL
    audio/out/ao_pulse.c            LGPL
    audio/out/ao_rsound.c           LGPL
    audio/out/ao_sdl.c              LGPL
    audio/out/ao_sndio.c            LGPL (BSD)
    audio/out/ao_wasapi.c           LGPL
    audio/out/ao_wasapi_changenotif LGPL
    audio/out/ao_wasapi.h           LGPL
    audio/out/ao_wasapi_utils.c     LGPL
    audio/out/internal.h            LGPL
    audio/out/pull.c                LGPL
    audio/out/push.c                LGPL
x   audio/audio.*                   very hard (mp_audio based of anders' af_audio)
        (required for LGPL core: determine if the struct can be used anyway, or
         devise a cheap AVFrame wrapper)
    audio/audio_buffer.*            LGPL
    audio/chmap.*                   LGPL
    audio/chmap_sel.*               LGPL
    audio/fmt-conversion.*          LGPL
    audio/format.*                  LGPL
    common/av_common.*              LGPL
    common/av_log.c                 almost LGPL
    common/av_log.h                 LGPL
    common/codecs.*                 LGPL
    common/common.*                 LGPL
    common/encode.h                 LGPL
    common/encode_lavc.*            LGPL
    common/global.h                 LGPL
    common/msg.c                    almost LGPL
    common/msg_control.h            LGPL
    common/msg.h                    LGPL
    common/playlist.*               LGPL
    common/recorder.*               LGPL
    common/tags.*                   LGPL
    common/version.c                LGPL
    demux/codec_tags.*              LGPL
    demux/cue.*                     LGPL
    demux/demux.*                   LGPL
    demux/demux_cue.c               LGPL
    demux/demux_disc.c              LGPL
    demux/demux_edl.c               LGPL
    demux/demux_lavf.c              almost LGPL
    demux/demux_libarchive.c        LGPL
    demux/demux_mf.c                LGPLv3+
    demux/demux_mkv.c               LGPL (mostly)
    demux/demux_mkv_timeline.c      LGPL
    demux/demux_null.c              LGPL
    demux/demux_playlist.c          LGPL
    demux/demux_rar.c               LGPL
    demux/demux_raw.c               almost LGPL
    demux/demux_timeline.c          LGPL
    demux/demux_tv.c                will stay GPL
    demux/ebml.*                    LGPL
    demux/matroska.h                LGPL
    demux/packet.*                  LGPL
    demux/stheader.h                LGPL
    demux/timeline.*                LGPL
    input/cmd_*                     LGPL
    input/event.*                   LGPL
    input/input.*                   LGPL
    input/ipc.c                     LGPL
    input/ipc-unix.c                LGPL
    input/ipc-win.c                 LGPL
    input/keycodes.*                LGPL
    input/pipe-win32.c              LGPL
    libmpv/*.*                      LGPL
    misc/*.*                        LGPL
    options/m_config.*              LGPL
    options/m_option.c              almost LGPL
    options/m_option.h              LGPL
    options/m_property.*            LGPL
    options/options.*               LGPL
    options/parse_commandline.*     LGPL
    options/parse_configfile.*      LGPL
    options/path.*                  LGPL
    osdep/android/*                 LGPL (BSD)
    osdep/ar/*                      LGPL (BSD)
    osdep/atomic.h                  LGPL
    osdep/compiler.h                LGPL
    osdep/endian.h                  LGPL
    osdep/glob-win.c                LGPL
    osdep/io.*                      LGPL
    osdep/macosx_application.h      LGPL
    osdep/macosx_application.m      LGPL
    osdep/macosx_application_objc.h LGPL
    osdep/macosx_compat.h           LGPL
    osdep/macosx_events.*           LGPL
    osdep/macosx_events_objc.h      LGPL
    osdep/macosx_touchbar.*         LGPL
    osdep/macosx_versions.h         LGPL
    osdep/main-fn-cocoa.c           LGPL
    osdep/main-fn.h                 LGPL
    osdep/main-fn-unix.c            LGPL
    osdep/main-fn-win.c             LGPL
    osdep/mpv.exe.manifest          LGPL
    osdep/mpv.rc                    LGPL
    osdep/path.h                    LGPL
    osdep/path-macosx.m             LGPL
    osdep/path-unix.c               LGPL
    osdep/path-win.c                LGPL
    osdep/semaphore.h               LGPL
    osdep/semaphore_osx.c           LGPL
    osdep/strnlen.h                 LGPL
    osdep/subprocess.*              LGPL
    osdep/subprocess-posix.c        LGPL
    osdep/subprocess-win.c          LGPL
    osdep/terminal.h                LGPL
    osdep/terminal-unix.c           LGPL
    osdep/terminal-win.c            LGPL
    osdep/threads.*                 LGPL
    osdep/timer.c                   LGPL
    osdep/timer.h                   LGPL
    osdep/timer-darwin.c            LGPL (MIT)
    osdep/timer-linux.c             LGPL
    osdep/timer-win2.c              LGPL
    osdep/w32_keyboard.c            LGPL
    osdep/w32_keyboard.h            LGPL
    osdep/win32-console-wrapper.c   LGPL (BSD)
    osdep/win32/*                   LGPL (ISC)
    osdep/windows_utils.*           LGPL
x   player/audio.c                  LGPL (dysfunctional due to libaf)
    player/client.*                 LGPL (ISC)
    player/command.c                LGPL
    player/command.h                LGPL
    player/configfiles.c            LGPL
    player/core.h                   LGPL
    player/external_files.*         LGPL
    player/lavfi.*                  LGPL
    player/loadfile.c               LGPL
    player/lua/*.*                  LGPL
    player/lua.c                    LGPL
    player/misc.c                   LGPL
    player/osd.c                    LGPL
    player/playloop.c               LGPL
    player/screenshot.*             LGPL
    player/scripting.*              LGPL
    player/sub.c                    LGPL
    player/video.c                  LGPL
    stream/ai_*                     will stay GPL (TV code)
    stream/audio_in.*               will stay GPL (TV code)
    stream/cache.c                  LGPLv3+
    stream/cache_file.c             LGPL
    stream/cookies.*                LGPL
    stream/dvb*                     must stay GPL
    stream/frequencies.*            must stay GPL
    stream/rar.*                    LGPL
    stream/stream_avdevice.c        LGPL
    stream/stream_bluray.c          LGPL
    stream/stream.*                 LGPL
    stream/stream_cb.c              LGPL
    stream/stream_cdda.c            unknown
    stream/stream_dvb.*             must stay GPL
    stream/stream_dvd.c             unknown
    stream/stream_dvd_common.*      unknown
    stream/stream_dvdnav.c          unknown
    stream/stream_edl.c             LGPL
    stream/stream_file.c            LGPL
    stream/stream_lavf.c            LGPL
    stream/stream_libarchive.*      LGPL
    stream/stream_memory.c          LGPL
    stream/stream_mf.c              LGPL
    stream/stream_null.c            LGPL
    stream/stream_rar.c             LGPL
    stream/stream_smb.c             will stay GPLv3
    stream/stream_tv.c              will stay GPL
    stream/tv*                      will stay GPL
    sub/*                           LGPL
    ta/*                            LGPL (ISC)
    video/decode/d3d.*              LGPL
    video/decode/dec_video.*        almost LGPL
    video/decode/hw_cuda.c          LGPL
    video/decode/hw_d3d11va.c       LGPL
    video/decode/hw_dxva2.c         LGPL
    video/decode/hw_videotoolbox.c  LGPL
    video/decode/lavc.h             almost LGPLv3+
    video/decode/vd.h               LGPL
    video/decode/vd_lavc.c          almost LGPLv3+
    video/filter/refqueue.*         LGPL
    video/filter/vf.c               LGPL
    video/filter/vf.h               LGPL (mostly)
    video/filter/vf_buffer.c        LGPL
    video/filter/vf_crop.c          will be deleted
    video/filter/vf_d3d11vpp.c      LGPL
    video/filter/vf_dsize.c         will be deleted
    video/filter/vf_expand.c        will be deleted
    video/filter/vf_flip.c          will be deleted
    video/filter/vf_format.c        will be deleted
    video/filter/vf_gradfun.c       will be deleted
    video/filter/vf_lavfi.*         LGPL
    video/filter/vf_mirror.c        will be deleted
    video/filter/vf_noformat.c      will be deleted
    video/filter/vf_pullup.c        will be deleted
    video/filter/vf_rotate.c        will be deleted
    video/filter/vf_scale.c         will be deleted
    video/filter/vf_stereo3d.c      will be deleted
    video/filter/vf_sub.c           will be deleted
    video/filter/vf_vapoursynth.c   LGPL
    video/filter/vf_vavpp.c         LGPL
    video/filter/vf_vdpaupp.c       LGPL
    video/filter/vf_yadif.c         will be deleted
    video/csputils.*                LGPL
    video/fmt-conversion.*          LGPL
    video/gpu_memcpy.*              will be deleted
    video/hwdec.*                   LGPL
    video/image_writer.*            LGPL
    video/img_format.*              LGPL
    video/mp_image.*                almost LGPL
    video/mp_image_pool.*           LGPL
    video/out/aspect.*              LGPL
    video/out/bitmap_packer.*       LGPL
    video/out/cocoa*                LGPL
    video/out/d3d_shader_420p.h     LGPL
    video/out/d3d_shader_nv12.h     LGPL
    video/out/d3d_shader_yuv.hlsl   LGPL
    video/out/dither.*              LGPL
    video/out/drm_common.*          LGPL
    video/out/filter_kernels.*      LGPL (BSD)
    video/out/opengl/hwdec_vaglx.c  GPL
    video/out/opengl/*              LGPL
    video/out/vo.c                  LGPL
    video/out/vo.h                  LGPL
    video/out/vo_caca.c             unknown
    video/out/vo_direct3d.c         unknown
    video/out/vo_drm.c              LGPL
    video/out/vo_image.c            LGPL
    video/out/vo_lavc.c             LGPL
    video/out/vo_null.c             LGPL
    video/out/vo_opengl.c           LGPL
    video/out/vo_opengl_cb.c        LGPL
    video/out/vo_rpi.c              LGPL
    video/out/vo_sdl.c              LGPL
    video/out/vo_tct.c              LGPL
    video/out/vo_vaapi.c            probably impossible (some company's code)
    video/out/vo_vdpau.c            probably impossible (nVidia's code)
    video/out/vo_wayland.c          LGPL
    video/out/vo_x11.c              probably impossible
    video/out/vo_xv.c               probably impossible
    video/out/w32_common.*          LGPL
    video/out/wayland*              LGPL
    video/out/win32/*               LGPL
    video/out/win_state.*           LGPL
    video/out/x11_common.*          probably impossible
    video/out/x11_icon.bin          LGPL
    video/sws_utils.*               almost LGPL
    video/vaapi.*                   hard (GPL-only parts must be ifdefed)
    video/vdpau.c                   hard (GPL-only parts must be ifdefed)
    video/vdpau_functions.inc       LGPL
    video/vdpau.h                   unknown
    video/vdpau_mixer.*             actual code must be rewritten
    video/vt.*                      LGPL