Re: GNOME-media on the road to 2.4.0

[Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller <uraeus gnome org>]

Hi Richard,
On Sat, 2003-12-27 at 23:16, Richard Stallman wrote:
> I am looking at old messages that I didn't answer during the year,
> and came across the discussion of GNOME-media.  I did not respond
> because I was overwhelmed at the time and fell behind, but the issue
> is important.
> 
> Could you tell me where things stand now, in regard to the danger of
> non-free plug-ins for GNOME-media?  Do any exist?  Who distributes or
> recommends them?

Well we have two non-free plugins currently for GStreamer that 
I know of. One for the Shorten audio format and one for the Monkey's
audio format. Both of them is free beer with source however. 

<SNIP>

> I think there is a misunderstanding here.  If the library's license
> does not allow use in the plug-in, you cannot eliminate this problem
> by adding a special exception on the plug-in's license.  (Unless the
> special exception says "You can also distribute and use this plug-in
under
> the terms of te puttinhg GNU GPL.")
No, what we wanted was an exception text we could ask the library
developers to add, to make distribution of these libraries legal in
countries where there are patents covering the code in them.

> An exception in the license of the *library* could give permission
> for its use in such a plug-in, but I think these authors won't want
> to add such an exception.  I would encourage them not to add one.
> This is a place our community needs to stand firm.
Well I see your point and I agree with what I think is the idea behind
it. But personally I think we need to offer support for patented
formats, at least for decoding them, as that is a prerequisite for
allowing people to recode their media files into free formats.

> I think the solution is to reject non-free plug-ins--to write
> GPL-covered plug-ins and distribute them in countries that 
don't have
> software patents, such as Brazil.  That will do the job in a fully 
> ethical way.
Offering a download from Brazil isn't what I would call a grandma
friendly solution. 

Christian