[CALUG] Podcast *player* plug-in for Firefox 1.5?

[Dave Dodge]

On Wed, Feb 22, 2006 at 11:08:01PM -0500, Rajiv Gunja wrote:
> I wonder how open source community got the rights to create a
> decoder and streamer for it.

Oh, that's easy -- they didn't.

One way around the problem is do the work in a country that doesn't
[yet] have software patents, though of course this only protects the
developers, not the users.  More likely is to just ignore the issue
entirely, since free software produced by a loose collection of
volunteers is less likely to draw legal attention than some company
selling a product.  That's why e.g. Red Hat doesn't have much media
playback support when you install it from the retail version; they
remove the unlicensed decoders and plugins first.

Occasionally open source projects will still get bitten, for example
DTS Inc. has sent some threats to the VideoLan folks:

  http://developers.videolan.org/libdca.html

> I compiled faad2 and lame on my Linux box.

>From the faad2 README:

  Please note that the use of this software may require the payment of
  patent royalties. You need to consider this issue before you start
  building derivative works. We are not warranting or indemnifying you in
  any way for patent royalities! YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN
  ACTIONS!

  http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/faac/faad2/README?rev=1.6&view=auto

>From the mpglib README (the decoding engine within lame):

  PLEASE NOTE: This software may contain patented algorithms (at least
  patented in some countries). It may be not allowed to sell/use products
  based on this source code in these countries. Check this out first!

  http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/lame/lame/mpglib/README?rev=1.2&view=auto

You'll find similar paragraphs in plenty of other open source audio
and video tools.

                                                  -Dave Dodge