xine-lib: splitting off patented stuff

[Aigars Mahinovs]

On 12/12/05, Till Varoquaux <till.varoquaux at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > But nonetheless this would mean a main xine-lib package with less
> > > codecs than now and a multiverse one with the missing parts (and
> > > some more as we have some optional libraries which are needed for
> > > some plugins in multiverse)
> >
> > Right, wasn't that the primary idea of the split in the first place?
> The ideal solutions would be to use dlopen thus allowing you to
> install only the codecs you want...
> Still this would be a pain to maintain. Maybe this should be suggested
> to the xine team?

Please don't do that - currently Linux is unique in that you install
the system and you are instantly able to play *anything*. Having to
think about codecs would be a major regression. I can accept splitting
to main and multiverse package if there is a *very* easy way to
install every split part. That means that if you REALY need to split
the patented stuff out (which is quite a question in itself), then
please make it easy for users to get it. There should be a menu entry
of "Install patent protected codecs" or something, that will ask if
you are sure and then will add universe and multiverse to your
sources.list and install ubuntu-patented metapackage that will bring
in all the patent protected addons for all packages that are installed
by ubuntu-desktop.

BTW, I also question the need to do such patent partitioning - if you
think about the crazy USA and Japan market, then you can not ship
anything to there at all: the kernel itself has ~300 patents in it and
god only knows how many more are  breached by all the Gnome software
installed. In the rest of the world, software is not patentable, so
there is no problem. In short - it is not possible to solve the
problem for USA - it is hopeless, so why do you complicate the life
for the rest of the world?

--
Best regards,
    Aigars Mahinovs        mailto:aigarius at debian.org
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