On DVD, GStreamer & SMIL

[Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller <Uraeus linuxrising org>]

A few points for the ongoing discussion.
As other have pointed out GStreamer is plugin based and if distributors
feel plugin X is legally shaky they can just skip shipping it. In some
extreme cases that could leave us with few supported formats, but
judging by what distros have done up to this point I think it will me we
support everything but DVD. At that point my guess is that people will
start offering the DVD plugin for download so that interested people can
get it.

As for SMIL. Real will opensource their SMIL implementation as part of
their HelixCommunity.org effort. I and others in the GStreamer community
have talked with their lead guy about it and gotten it confirmed.
However this code will use a new license from Real which is in many
aspects similar to the LGPL in the way it works except for the GPL
compatability part. While nothing is set in stone, especially until we
actually have been able to see the code, there is a decent chance
GStreamer will use this code to add SMIL support. 

Christian