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On Thu, Apr 24, 2003 at 02:14:07PM -0400, Todd Berman (tberman@×××××××××.org) wrote: |
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> Honestly, giving the mplayer peoples preoccupation with the legality of |
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> what they are doing, if they are providing the downloading, I have no |
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> doubt it is completely legal. |
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|
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>From their discussions in mplayer-dev-eng and mplayer-users, I can only |
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conclude that they are ignorant of copyright law. Here's one example |
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which is relevant to this thread: |
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|
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Alexey Morozov (user), <20020610032848.GX8690@××××××××××××.ru>: |
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... "strictly speaking codecs on mplayerhq.hu are illegal" ... "No, I |
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don't want to say you should remove it immediately, but probably there's |
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a legal problem here" |
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|
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A'rpi (dev) response <200206101054.g5AAsXO5010229@××××××××××××××.hu>: |
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"i'm not a lawyer, but teh avifile guys discussed this topic very long, |
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about a year ago, and get the result of it's somehow legal. note that |
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you can get the win32 codecs from m$ without having to accept any |
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license." |
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|
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This is most likely what A'rpi is referring to: |
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http://avifile.sourceforge.net/about.htm |
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|
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"Many DLLs are available without having to accept any license agreement |
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at all ( DivX ;-), all DirectShow codecs ), what obviously means that |
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any kind of activity with them is acceptable." |
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|
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The second part of that avifile statement is patently incorrect. |
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Copyrighted works which do not include a license are still protected by |
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copyright law, and redistributing said works would be copyright |
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infringement. |
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|
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I've mailed the legal department at Apple, Microsoft and Real and asked |
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if the mplayer project has distribution licenses for their codecs. I'll |
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inform the list of any response. |
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|
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> I know OpenDivx (not sure if this is what divx4linux is based on or not) |
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> had a no binary-distribution license, but src was acceptable. Im hunting |
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> around on the mplayer site right now to try to find a definative answer. |
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|
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divx4linux is the binary only codec from divx.com. avifile ebuild |
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shouldn't require it. |
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|
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-- |
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Jon Lech Johansen |
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jon@××××××××××.org |
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nanocrew.net/blog/ |
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|
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Stat sua cuique dies, breve et inreparabile tempus |
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omnibus est vitae; sed famam extendere factis, |
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hoc virtutis opus. |
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|
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-- |
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