----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Greater NH Linux Users' Group" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, July 22, 2002 6:10 PM Subject: RealNetworks going Open Source?
> It is unclear yet what components will be opened, but rumor appears to > indicate it would be transport and playback frameworks, but not the actual > A/V codes. Still, that might solve my immediate problem of being unable to > view streaming media, i.e., with a transport engine that "collects" the > real-time packets and feeds them to a closed player. It appears the goal is to allow proprietary streaming media providers to supply "plug-ins" to RealNetworks' framework, in order to make a more versatile client. They don't appear to be opening up RealNetworks' streaming protocol. Of course, the way they've done it has certainly opened the door for "Someone Else" to come along and reverse engineer their protocol. If this was done by, say, an open source project, then the protocol could then become open, providing the reverse engineering process stands up to scrutiny (and the courts, no doubt.) RealNetworks certainly wouldn't have a leg to stand on regarding the ethics of doing this, since they did exactly the same thing with Microsoft's Media Player format. > > One thing that occurs to me: One of the major uses for streaming media > today is not live productions, but rather, a misguided and ill-conceived > form of copy-protection and content-control. If Real goes open, and that > creates a perception that Real is easier to copy, will the media cartel drop > Real in favor of Microsoft? That is, could this make the Open Source > streaming media situation worse? > As an amateur content provider, I can say that my chief motivations in using streaming content are to eliminate the delays seen by users in downloading files, compression and quality of playback (server space vs. sound/video quality) and audience reach (supporting as many internet users as possible with one format.) While many content providers have copy protection and content control in mind, these objectives are easily met by reducing the quality of the file OR stream to something that is tolerable, but not "hi-fi," ie., not suitable for reproduction or mastering purposes. If I WERE concerned with such matters, I certainly wouldn't go running to Microsoft, since RealNetworks' player can now decode that format as well. Any client plug-in that can capture RealNetworks' stream to a file would likely be capable of doing the same with the Media Player stream as well. Rich Cloutier President, C*O SYSTEM SUPPORT SERVICES www.sysupport.com ***************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *****************************************************************
