metapackages- Yes , please

[Reinhard Tartler]

On 9/27/05, Peter Garrett <peter.garrett at optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> > > Please keep in mind that most new users have no idea what, say, gstreamer0.8-mad is, for example. They just want a simple way to play their mp3 collection - or whatever...
> > >
> >
> > And don't care for legal reasons. I know. We as developers cannot
> > ignore those issues, you know.
>
> This is totally *not* what my post says. Nowhere did I suggest that legalities should be ignored.

I am very sorry if you are feeling attacked by my words, that was in
no way my intention. You said users just wanted a simple way to play
their fancy multimedia files. I added that in my opinion many of these
users don't care about legal issues and get frustrated that they don't
get this functionality out-of-the-box (i.e. technically: supported in
main). This is my view of the problem, nothing else. And yes, I was a
bit in a hurry when I wrote that lines.

> Are you saying that, for example, gstreamer0.8-mad is illegal in some way?

gstreamer0.8-mad is a package suitable for mp3 decoding, which is
patent encumbered. Franhofer is not actively enforcing these patents
but they could do at any time, if they wanted. Moreover, I heard that
SuSE removed even mp3 playing functionality for legal reasons, so yes,
I assume there are legal problems even with mp3 playing in some
jurisdictions.

With mp3 encoding it gets even worse, in this case, Fraunhofer is
actively enforcing its patents, from what I heared. :(
--
regards,
    Reinhard