Re: MP3 decoder packaged with XMMS
On Sat, Jul 16, 2005 at 04:31:20AM -0700, Michael K. Edwards wrote:
> On 7/16/05, Diego Biurrun <diego@biurrun.de> wrote:
> > On Sat, Jul 16, 2005 at 03:09:20AM -0700, Michael K. Edwards wrote:
> > >
> > > If Debian and Thomson knock this domino over, someday even DeCSS may
> > > be blessed by the powers that be. (Though IMHO the only
> > > non-infringing use it really has is the product mock-up scenario.)
> >
> > WTF? How about watching DVDs?
>
> That requires, AFAICT, a license for the relevant patents from the
> relevant patent holders. AFAIK CSS itself isn't patented (or
> patentable) but the typical license agreement for some bits of the DVD
> technology suite that are patented is conditioned on respecting the
> whole scheme of copy protection, CSS included. Don't blame me, I
> didn't design the system, I don't pull the puppet strings attached to
> Jack Valenti, I think CSS is ill designed and ill conceived, etc.,
> etc. I'm just telling it like it is. You wanna go up against money
> and power wielded by very large dinosaurs, have fun -- but don't drag
> the bloody operating system into the trenches with you, OK?
OK, apologies if I was a bit harsh at jumping to the conclusion that you
were intending to say DeCSS (or nowadays more likely libdvdcss) had no
non-infringing uses (leaving out any discussion of what infringement
might really be).
AFAIK Linspire has a license from MPEG-LA to ship DVD players with their
distribution, but they use xine/MPlayer together with libdvdcss.
BTW, calling CSS a copy protection is misleading, please don't mislabel
it that way.
Diego
P.S.: No need to CC me, I'm subscribed.
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