Idea: Restricted Formats in Examples?

[Corey Burger]

On 2/24/07, Alec Wright <alecjw at gmail.com> wrote:
> In the examples folder (which there is a symlink to in ~/Examples),
> there are some useful example files for trying stuff out, demonstrating
> Ubuntu capabilities in several ways such as videos, music, images etc.
> However, the multimedia files are all in free formats. I think that it
> would be a good idea to have examples in a variety of non-free formats
> too, such as MP3, AAC, WMA etc, so that you can test Ubuntu's ability to
> play these non-free formats (once you have installed the appropriate
> gstreamer on xine plugins). But this would be useless on the LiveCD, as
> no-one would install gstreamer plugins on the LiveCD, so it would only
> be useful in the installed system. There would also need to be a readme
> file saying something like "These files are in non-free formats, which
> cannot be played in a default Ubuntu install for legal reasons.  To
> install the appropriate plugins, add the universe and multiverse
> repositories and do the command sudo aptitude install blah blah blah"
>
> What do you guys think of this idea? Are there any legal issues related
> with shipping MP3 files with Ubuntu?

There are no legal issues with shipping unencumbered formats. However,
there was a very conscious decision to only ship free formats.

Corey