Giacomo Tufano wrote:
> Il giorno 21/feb/08, alle ore 17:22, Brian Nitz ha scritto:
>
>   
>> Rather than focusing on how difficult it is to run dodgey, unlicensed
>> video codecs out of the box as compared to Ubuntu, I'd like to make  
>> sure
>> that our licensed Fluendo g-streamer plugins, LinDVD legal DVD playing
>> and free multimedia options (e.g. ogg-theora) are as easy to install  
>> and
>> equivalent or superior to the legal options on Ubuntu.
>>     
>
> You're right, but for me at home (and, probably, for many people in  
> Europe) it is legal to download the "dodgey, unlicensed video codec"  
> for Ubuntu. The repository warns me that this could not be legal in my  
> country and this is all. I can legally use DVD, MPEG2 and whatever for  
> Ubuntu (legally, in my country) and I cannot with Solaris. The key,  
> IMHO, is to make sure it is an "user choice" to download and use  
> "potentially illegal" codecs.
>
> This makes a *big* difference in desktop usability... and the end user  
> outside of "MPAA/RIAA domain" (just joking, no pun intended) do not  
> fully understand what you're saying (I do, but I work for an US  
> Company).
>   
You bring up a good point on perception as this question comes up very 
often (even from people who also work for U.S. companies).  Maybe the 
first step is education.  What do you think about this:

- For multimedia formats for which there is a completely legal and free 
option available on OpenSolaris (e.g. Ogg), have the appropriate 
plug-ins pre-installed so it just works.

- For multimedia formats for which there is a legal option available 
which is not free and therefore must be installed by the end user,  
register the mime type to bring up codeina or easy-codec-install just as 
Ubuntu does.  That way, when the user clicks on the file type it 
presents the option to install the codec.

- For multimedia formats for which neither free nor legal options are 
available on OpenSolaris, bring up an informative dialog:

The file you've selected is encoded in a multimedia format which 
requires a licensed codec in some locales.  It appears that licensed 
codecs for this format do not exist for OpenSolaris.  Please contact 
vendor (Y) and ask them to port their codec to OpenSolaris and/or 
provide a way to legally play your content on your platform of choice.  
If you find a licensed codec which is not integrated, please inform the 
OpenSolaris community at [EMAIL PROTECTED]  If you are unable to 
find a licensed codec and you've researched the relevant laws of your 
locale, you may be able to find an unsupported content player on GOOGLE 
and use it at your own risk.   Neither Sun Microsystems nor the 
OpenSolaris community are responsible for any legal costs associated 
with the use or misuse of multimedia codecs and related utilities.


> My 2 €cents,
> gt
>
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