On Wed, 21 May 2008 12:25:12 +0200 "Giacomo A. Catenazzi" <cate@cateee.net> wrote: > Alexander Rozhkov wrote: > > Good day. > > I have a question: if I use totem or vlc (both provided by > > debian) to watch commercially distributed DVD discs, do > > I have to pay royalty for using codecs? > > Not unless you're using a codec you got outside debian. Debian can play non-CSS DVD's without adding anything outside main, in which case you are using entirely free software and have no royalties to pay (for the watching of the CD using Debian at any rate; if you are selling tickets to watch DVDs that an entirely different issue and not really Debian related :-) If you are using libdvdcss2 from the videolan website, or from debian-multimedia then the you still don't have to pay royalties, as it is free software but not distributed in Debian because of legal issues with doing so within the US (and I believe the EU as well). In Canada, at present it's allowed to distribute this software AFAIK but there are moves underway to make distribution illegal, but usage for non-pirating would be legal. At least that was the last I heard. Stupid stuff with CSS laws. Regards, Daniel -- And that's my crabbing done for the day. Got it out of the way early, now I have the rest of the afternoon to sniff fragrant tea-roses or strangle cute bunnies or something. -- Michael Devore GnuPG Key Fingerprint 86 F5 81 A5 D4 2E 1F 1C http://gnupg.org No more sea shells: Daniel's Weblog http://cshore.wordpress.com
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