On Tuesday 04 October 2005 08:54, Pascal Bleser wrote: > houghi wrote: > > On Tue, Oct 04, 2005 at 08:37:35AM +0200, Marcus Meissner wrote: > >> The problem is that they have to integrate tightly with the shipping X > >> Server to fulfill the mandatory copy protection mechanisms > >> (macrovision). This makes shipping a generic DVD player for Linux very > >> difficult. > > > > Ah, so if there would be a legal version of libdvdcss2, that would cause > > a problem? Somehow I do not think so. > > Be careful to distinguish between copyright and patents. > That's probably what's the most misleading with libdvdcss2. > > From the copyright aspect, there's no problem whatsoever, as libdvdcss2, > mad and lame are (L)GPL (or BSD or whatever, they're OpenSource). > So, from that point, you might very well package it and distribute it > according to their license (=(L)GPL). > > The problem is with patents and licenses that apply to the underlying > technologies. > > For MP3, the issue is with the patent license: as already discussed often > on this list, a few businesses (Thompson and Frauenhofer, amongst others) > hold patents on various parts of the MP3 technology. > Yes, it's even that bad: it's not just one company having the patents, it's > several of them. > > Some of them specify that you MAY NOT distribute implementations of their > technology without buying patent licenses on them. That is the reason why > mad (an MP3 decoding library) is (L)GPL, but may not be distributed for > free as part of SUSE Linux OSS. The "commercial" (boxed) SUSE Linux version > may do so because Novell is a licensee and pays a distribution fee to the > patent holders. Of course, that license fee is included in the price of the > boxed set. > It's even worse for e.g. lame (an MP3 encoding library), as their patent > [license] restrictions on MP3 encoders are very harsh. > > Maybe now you realize with Ogg/Vorbis is so important and why you should > definately use Ogg/Vorbis (or Theora) when you rip and encode your music or > movie collection. Ogg/Vorbis is not only Free software, it's also _free > from patents_: "Ogg Vorbis is a completely open, patent-free, professional > audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open > Source." (http://www.vorbis.com/) > Also read the 3 paragraphs on their website, starting here: > http://www.vorbis.com/faq/#com > > With libdvdcss2, it's even more complicated, as it might infringe patents, > depending on the country you live in (and its laws). Given how aggressive > the music and movie industry is at the moment, that means you're > potentially a legal target for them, pretty much anywhere in the world. And > it doesn't even matter if you're right or wrong, patents are basically cash > machines. > > So, to summarize: libdvdcss2 is (L)GPL, but infringes patents because they > break the conditions by which you are allowed to play encrypted DVDs. > > As a side note: never, ever use the term "intellectual property". It > doesn't mean a thing. That's a PR term (probably invented by SCO ;)) that > very vaguely refers to copyright and patents, which are two totally > different things. "Intellectual property" is not a term that has any > "legal" meaning. > So make sure to use the correct terms "copyright" and "patents", > appropriately. > > > To build an installer around that should not be too hard, be it deb, rpm, > > tgz or even a binary. > > Well, I'm afraid that even providing an installer could get you into > trouble. Depending on the country you live in and the country where your > installer is hosted, it can. As an example: recently, in Germany, Heise > (the largest IT news website and magazine publisher in Germany) has lost in > court because they were publishing a *hyperlink* to a DeCSS2-capable DVD > ripper software (for Windows). They're appealing, but who knows how this > will end. > > It's a sick, sick world, and I'm afraid we ain't seen nothing yet. > > Hope this clarifies the MP3 and DeCSS2 shmoo once for all. > > cheers
Thanks Pascal, I found that very interesting and informative. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
