I demo "genbox" (freevo on gentoo) on a few local lan's where i am part of the crew, and i have gotten the "Can i buy that" or "Why don't u sell a box like that" before, so i have also thought of it a lot.
1 - There's the licensing issue. U're basically selling a mpeg encoder/decoder, so company x + y+ z will ask u to pay all sorts of licensing fees. With a PVR250/350/DXR3 u can get around this a bit, but that's not very handy or completly legal-proof (divx/mpeg 4 decoding, mp3 decoding, realmedia, quicktime). 2 - i consider freevo not-yet-mature enough just yet. If u want to sell freevo boxes, u will have to standardise on a certain set of hardware and weed all remaining bugs out (and contribute back ofcourse). Even if it would only crash once a month, that's still to much if u sell it to a few dozen people and have to provide support (and the legal 1year guarantee here). 3 - EPG data. You'll have to pay for it or u will get sued. 4 - And when u'have done 2, anybody with a better supply chain and cheaper HW access kan simply dd your freevo box harddrive and sell his own cheaper. I have made some freevo boxes for friends and stuff, but i don't get rich from that except for some donations. So it' basically near impossibble, except maybe if u have a small truckload of cash. Mvg den_RDC On Monday 13 October 2003 23:29, Aubin Paul wrote: > There are a few problems that I considered when I was thinking of > something like this. > > 1. Codec licensing is a big one. Some codecs, like MPEG4 require > licensing for playback AND for recording. Also, MPEG2, AAC, etc. To > release a "boxed" version of Freevo, you'd have to cripple those things > or find a way to pay for them all. Of course, DVD playback requires a > separate MPEG2 and DVD license. > > 2. Lack of controls. One of the things I like about Freevo is the lack > of controls; but if you could get sued very easily by cable/TV > companies if you allowed people to burn DRM-free copies of things. I'm > not saying the lawsuits would have any merit, but it would hurt before > you got started. > > The "free" in freevo would be at risk because of the variety of laws, > patents, and arbitrary restrictions on fair use. > > Aubin > > On 13-Oct-03, at 4:03 PM, Peter Svensson wrote: > > I hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot here, but I am certain that > > I'm > > not the only person intent on actually selling boxes with freevo in > > them. > > > > The remote update idea is great. I've already worked on that idea from > > a > > retailers perspective (Blocking stolen machines, et.c.). > > > > But riddle me this; > > > > Q: What's the difference between Redhat corp. and the loosely knitted > > freevo > > community? > > > > > > A: Redhat knows it's company :-)= > > > > What I mean is that if one found a model (and I don't have one right > > on the > > top of my head - but that doesn't mean we can't find one) for > > developing, > > distributing and supporting freevo in a commercial manner, everybody > > could > > benefit. > > > > I'm thinking something along the lines of developers getting kickbacks > > for > > every _commercially sold_ system, support organizations (or > > individuals) > > sell support 'packages' (6 mo/1 yr) to the retailers (myself included > > > > :) > > > > which resell them to the customers who funds the whole shebang. > > > > I have absolutely no idea whether a) Anyone would want anything like > > this, > > b) If it is at all legal, Gnu-wise. ALl I know is that every hardware > > company on earth is dropping something freevo-like on the market at the > > moment and freevo kicks the butt of everything I've seen - with a few > > features missing here and there (SAT-card reader stuff, for instance) > > - but > > oh, the configurability. > > > > Now, go ahead and call me names :) > > > > Respectfully, > > Peter. > > > > -----Ursprungligt meddelande----- > > Från: Robert Rozman > > Till: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Skickat: 2003-10-13 21:36 > > Ämne: [Freevo-devel] Internet update/plugin selection framework for > > Freevo ? > > > > Hello, > > > > I've been thinking about some proper way/system to solve problem of > > user > > friendliness and remote updates/plugins selections through some easier > > interfaces in Freevo. I'm speech recognition researcher and use CSLU > > Speech > > tookit. They have web update service, where user remotely update or > > select/deselect current software modules. > > > > I'm sure that when Freevo is coming to more mature state where core > > wouldn't > > be so much in development and a lot of plugins will arise - we need > > some > > easy way of doing this. > > > > Any thoughts, ideas, code in this direction? Is twisted right framework > > for > > the job? Are there any other possibilities under Python ? > > > > Regards, > > > > Robert. > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program. > > SourceForge.net hosts over 70,000 Open Source Projects. > > See the people who have HELPED US provide better services: > > Click here: http://sourceforge.net/supporters.php > > _______________________________________________ > > Freevo-devel mailing list > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-devel > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program. > > SourceForge.net hosts over 70,000 Open Source Projects. > > See the people who have HELPED US provide better services: > > Click here: http://sourceforge.net/supporters.php > > _______________________________________________ > > Freevo-devel mailing list > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-devel > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program. > SourceForge.net hosts over 70,000 Open Source Projects. > See the people who have HELPED US provide better services: > Click here: http://sourceforge.net/supporters.php > _______________________________________________ > Freevo-devel mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-devel ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program. 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