[Slightly OT] Re: Ranter or evangelist?

Marko Vojinovic vvmarko at gmail.com
Mon Jul 27 23:39:44 UTC 2009


On Monday 27 July 2009 03:06:34 gilpel at altern.org wrote:
> > I didn't say using wmv was the problem
>
> If you don't, well, I do. Using proprietary formats on state television is
> ABSOLUTELY inacceptable.

Then go complain to the TV station and educate *them* that they made a bad 
choice of format. All of us here on the list know that proprietary formats are 
a bad idea. No need to discuss it here.

> So, MPlayer must be included instead of Totem. From what I read
> everywhere, MPlayer does better. If the devil is behind MPlayer, the code
> is open, Totem can "borrow" it.

This cannot be done due to US law. I know, it sucks, but again, go complain to 
the US government, not here. We already know the bad side of patents and such.

And the problem cannot be solved by "borrowing" the code. The patent says that 
*algorithm* is monopolized, so Totem is not allowed to use *any* code 
whatsoever for it. This is the patent work at its worst --- the *idea* is 
restricted, not the implementation (ie. the actual code that turns the idea 
into a working program).

> I believe I made very clear that we can't always blame Microsoft for
> having a 1% market share. There also is need for amelioration on our side.

Interest in market share notwithstanding, I'm sure Fedora would wish to 
include mplayer and all no-go codecs for all of the players available, in 
order to maximize user experience. But Fedora is simply bounded by laws of the 
land, and is not allowed to. Nothing more can be done "on our side".

Best, :-)
Marko






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