post-install media formats wizard

[Chris Wagner]

On Wed, 2006-02-22 at 09:37 -0800, Dane Mutters wrote:
> 	Are there any lawyers on this list?  Does anybody know of one who would like 
> to be?
> 
> 	I think that we're kind-of "kicking a dead horse" until we get somebody in 
> here who has some professional knowledge of copyright and patent law.  
> Personally, I strongly agree that we need to have at least an option to 
> install some non-free codecs on Ubuntu without having to go through 
> Synaptic/apt-get and universe/multiverse to get them.  It's just too 
> complicated for the average user.  It's too complicated for many Linux/power 
> users.  Unfortunately, until we get a lawyer in here to validate/throw out 
> some of our ideas, we really shouldn't be arguing over what text to include 
> (although ideas are always welcome, IMHO).

Even if it turns out to be illegal for us to "automatically" install
some restricted codecs, upon a user hitting a button, it would still go
a LONG way (in helping people find what they need) to just have a
message that tells users WHY their MP3's (etc) aren't playing.
Furthermore, I can't see how it could possibly be illegal to point the
user to a website/HOWTO which (these already exist, so if they're
illegal then...) explains the situation further and/or tells the user
how to play his files.

>From my experience, I would say that anyone whom has the bravery to
install "Linux", on his own, would be clever enough to install these
codecs by using a HOWTO.  As for others, they must have been pointed to
Linux by someone with a little more experience (like us); they'll call
their friend and say "MP3's won't play.  Can you help?".

So,
 Worst Situation: We have a dialog, that pops up when a user attempts to
play a piece of media of a restricted format, that explains to the user
WHY she cannot play her file out-of-the-box and HOW she can find out
more information about this problem.
 Best Situation: When the user first attempts to play a given restricted
format, she is greeted with a dialog that allows her to install a codec
for the given format; after that, she doesn't have to worry about this
nuisance again.