The Multimedia Question

[Tom "spot" Callaway]

On Wed, 2007-07-18 at 22:07 +0200, David Nielsen wrote:
> ons, 18 07 2007 kl. 15:08 -0500, skrev Tom "spot" Callaway:
> > 
> > Last time I checked, the Fluendo codecs were under a BSD license. That's
> > a free software license.
> 
> The majority of the codecs are under a completely proprietary license,
> exceptions to that rule are:
> 
> * an MIT-licensed mp3 decoder
> * an MPL-licensed MPEG Transport Stream and Program Stream demuxer 
> * an MPL-licensed MPEG Transport Stream muxer
> 
> Neither one of these comes with a patent grant unless you get the
> official binaries from Fluendo.

OK, there are two issues then:

- Do we want codec buddy to help Fedora users install proprietary
software (e.g. codecs from Fluendo under proprietary licenses)?
- Do we want codec buddy to help Fedora users install free software that
we know to be patent encumbered (e.g. codecs from Fluendo under free
licenses, dodging patent issues because they come from Fluendo)?

I think my answer to the second question is yes, but my answer to the
first question is no.

I'm not really interested in helping Fluendo sell proprietary software.
That seems utterly hypocritical to me.

~spot