Re: [Usability] Chabada's Suggestions

[Liam R E Quin <liam holoweb net>]

On Tue, 2006-06-27 at 15:42 +1200, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
[...]
> But that's not the issue here. The issue is, given that there is an 
> error alert, which alert text is better: "Nautilus could not open the 
> file because the filetype is unknown", or "&operatingsystem; cannot 
> play MP3 files, because some countries allow software patents and Free 
> Software cannot pay patent licenses".

The latter isn't true.  That is,
(1) the operating system is actually likely to be technically capable
    of supporting MP3 players, and
(2) it's trying to play a piece of music (one imagines) and not in
    fact trying to play a patent :-)

More importantly, the right message in practice might be

    The distributor of this operating environment did not obtain
    permission to ship support for MPEG sound decoding (e.g. mp3)
    from the holder(s) of patents on the required techniques.

    If you know that the legal issues do not affect you, you can
    install support for MP3 files [here].

    Contact your local politician to register a protest against
    the way that ideas can belong to corporations [here].

People are more likely to read messages if, from time to time,
they contain useful information.  Explain the problem, and
help people to understand the issues, and then help them to
do something about it.

best,

Liam

-- 
Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
Pictures from old books: http://fromoldbooks.org/
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