[MPlayer-users] A question about patented codecs

[Rich Felker]

On Wed, Mar 05, 2008 at 01:51:26AM -0000, Phil Rhodes wrote:
> > people come ask you for help to install such a system, most likely he sees
> > this box as a DVD player, not a computer. What I mean is, he won't bother 
> > to
> 
> This is one of the biggest problems with opensource per se. I constantly end 
> up helping people who have bought systems with Linux installed - which is 
> great - then get it home to find they can't play mp3s, DVDs, h.264 video, 
> real media, etc. All of these have happened to me in the last week.

All they need to do is download a non-crippleware version of MPlayer.
The situation with Windows is pretty similar -- out of the box it has
all sorts of crippleware and you have to fix it to get a usable
system.

> Unfortunately the very GPL itself prevents this from ever being solved. It's 
> a major stumbling block.

This is anti-GPL FUD with no legitimacy. Extralegal application of
invalid patents is what prevents the problem from being solved, and it
will be solved as soon as judges and/or the USPTO begin to understand
the absurdity of the relevant patents.

Rich