RE: gnome-multimedia digest, Vol 1 #99 - 1 msg

["L. Clayton Parker" <lparker cacaphony net>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gnome-multimedia-admin gnome org
> [mailto:gnome-multimedia-admin gnome org]On Behalf Of
> Christian Fredrik
> Kalager Schaller
> Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2003 12:45 PM
> To: Aaron Buckner
> Cc: gnome-multimedia gnome org
> Subject: Re: gnome-multimedia digest, Vol 1 #99 - 1 msg
>
>
> On Thu, 2003-06-26 at 18:25, Aaron Buckner wrote:
>
> The tragic fact is that applications like Xine, Mplayer or Totem for
> that matter, and libraries like mad and ac3dec are violating their own
> license making it impossible for distributors that care about
> respecting
> the license of the software they ship to ship them.

I would have to agree with Aaron. RedHat has purposely shipped mplayer and
XMMS as  "lobotomized" versions with no MPEG or MP3 support rather than
violate licensing restrictions. It is left to the user to download and
install the full version - and it must be compiled for your particular
system which turns out to be a non-trivial task on some systems (like mine).

For instance, I was able to ugrade XMMS and get it to play MP3s, but I
cannot get mplayer to play _anything_.

What is actually needed are "standard formats" that are GPL licensed, rather
than the code to interpret them. It would be great if a certain few vendors
would simply put their standard formats in the Public Domain, without giving
up the rights to any of the code to read or write them. If we can write a
better program (that doesn't infringe their patent to their code) - great.
Maybe we can then sell the program back or to some other comapny or put it
in the Public Domain ourseleves - our choice.

Lee Parker

It is by coffee alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of java that thoughts acquire speed.
The hands acquire trembling.
The trembling becomes a warning.
It is by coffee alone I set my mind in motion.

-- Frank Herbert