Re: GNOME-media on the road to 2.4.0

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron sun com>]

Iain:

> The gstreamer based apps don't link to any dodgy libraries themselves.
> 
> They might dlopen them once they're running, but if you don't have a
> patent encumbered library/plugin installed then it won't be opened. And
> that would imply that the distribution of these players isn't breaking
> any patents, its the distribution of the actual mp3/whatever plugins
> that might.

Exactly, there is no problem with the players.  You can certainly
avoid the issue by not shipping any plugins that are encumbered by
patent issues.  However, some of the most popular audio/video formats
that exist are encumbered (QuickTime, mp3, RealMedia, etc.).  It
would be nice if a company that has paid the royalty fees could
include these plugins, and use them with the various GNOME players.  

Right now the only thing that seems to be stopping this is the fact
that the players are GPL'ed.  And the GPL seems to imply that 
it is not acceptable to distribute GPL'ed code that is 
encumbered by a non-royalty-free patent.

Brian