Dapper installation notes/Stuff that needs fixing

[Dane Mutters]

On Tuesday 14 February 2006 10:27 pm, Santiago Roza wrote:
> the players are not illegal per se... what's illegal in some countries
> is their implementation of patented standards (mp3, mpeg2/dvd,
> mpeg4/divx), without paying the corresponding royalties.

Ahh...that makes sense...inasmuch as software patents make sense.

>
> those countries are the ones that recognise software patents;
> basically usa and japan:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Licensing_and_patent_issues

Thanks for the link.  Looks like the MP3 patents, at least, expire in 
2010.  :-)

>
> in the case of w32codecs and libdvdcss2, what's also illegal (under
> the american dmca) is the reverse engineering of the formats... not to
> mention the fact that w32codecs include a bunch of copyrighted
> quicktime/wm/divx dlls haxored together  :S
>
>
> there are no easy solutions, because the legal issue is tricky (and
> risky).  the ones i can think of are:
> - making a parallel non-us version of ubuntu, with all the patented stuff.
> - including the patented stuff in ubuntu, but install it only if the
> user claims not to be in the us or any other country with software
> patents.
> - including a post-install wizard that downloads and installs all that
> stuff, if the user claims the same thing as before.
>
>
> but again, there's no easy solution.
>
>
> --
> Santiago Roza
> Departamento I+D - Thymbra
> santiago.roza at thymbra.com

	Seems like a more permanent solution, although probably beyond the reach of 
the open source community, would be to simply buy the rights to the software.  
For now, though, I put my vote behind a wizard that allows the user an option 
like, "I agree to pay all licensing fees as mentioned above" or some such, 
and if accepted, installs the software.

	--Dane