All things related to multicast

[Anibal Vega-Montijo <>]

Hi,

Here is a link of a presentation given by Álvaro Martín from Universidad 
Politécnica de Madrid (UPM).

Challenges for innovation in the Free/Libre and Open Source area (FLOSS).

This presentation has a VideoLAN case study.

http://www.eestec.es/ws06/recursos/EESTEC%20-%20Challenges%20for%20innovation%20in%20the%20FLOSS%20area%20AM%20v1.ppt

Also the openSUSE Restricted Formats webpage explains the legal issues 
in DVD/mpeg2 video and MP3 audio in Open-source software.

http://en.opensuse.org/Restricted_Formats

Anibal

Anibal Vega-Montijo 
()
Systems Programmer
Center for Information Architecture in Research
Research Centers in Minority Institutions
University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus
(787) 758-2525 ext 2193



Richard Mavrogeanes wrote:
> It's very simple, really.
>  
> "Open Source" does not mean "non-infringing".
>  
> All MPEG encoding and decoding technology is patented.  It is not possible to decode MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 without using an essential patent. Commercial products pay the necessary royalty, hence they can never be truly "free".
>  
> VLC does not pay the royalty...which is some $2.50 per decoder instance for MPEG-2 alone, and a different schedule for MPEG-4.  This is, by the way, why Microsoft does not include a MPEG-2 decoder.
>  
> Disclaimer:
> Neither I nor my company holds any patents in this area, so I have no ax to grind.  My 
> company sells a decoder, but frankly it's at a loss.  I would be far happier if the 
> decoder royalty issue would just go away, or if there were a carve out in the license 
> for educational, personal, or non-commercial use. But I doubt this will happen (as a 
> board member of the MPEGIF and a former board member of ISMA, I can tell you "we 
> tried").
>  
> <opinion>
> The patent holders and the firm that represents them are too greedy and make 
> it far too difficult for an institution to be legal.  A VLC user wishing to 
> follow the rules is presented with an absurd agreement that only makes sense 
> for vendors.
>  
> If a computer has a licensed decoder (e.g. a DVD player), then I would argue the royalty has been paid.  But VLC makes no distinction and therefore users risk infringement.
>  
> On the other hand, going 55 mph in a 50 mph zone is illegal, but I don't see too many people pulled over for this unless it's a police 'excuse' for something else (and that may be the real risk VLC users run).
> </opinion>
>  
>  
>  
> Rich Mavrogeanes
> Founder & Chief Streaming Officer
> VBrick Systems, Inc.
> 12 Beaumont Road
> Wallingford CT 06492 USA
> +1 203.303.0200 office
> +1 203.623-1698 mobile
> http://www.vbrick.com <http://www.vbrick.com/> 
> http://www.vbrick.net <http://www.vbrick.net/> 
> Building Vision Across Your Network
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Frank Fulchiero 
> [mailto:]
> Sent: Mon 4/2/2007 10:08 PM
> To: 
> ;
>  
> ;
>  
>
> Subject: Legality of using VLC
>
>
>
> One intriguing rumor I have heard from some folks is that there are 
> people that think VLC is somehow "illegal" to use.
> I have not heard this directly, but only indirectly, so don't know 
> how true it is.
>
> If anyone on these lists has a recent article from a knowledgeable 
> source backing up this claim, I would appreciate it if they would 
> post the link.
> Also, if anyone has a good argument that VLC is illegal, or breaks 
> any laws, please post your reasoning.
>
> There seems to be a little bit of "almost-fud" regarding this issue, 
> and I think a public discussion would help clear the air.
>
> The OSX version of VLC has been hosted on the Apple servers for a 
> while now, and is the 13th most popular download:
>
> http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/
>
> and there have been about 100 million downloads from the VLC site
>
> http://www.videolan.org/stats/downloads.php
>
> I doubt the above two facts would be true if there was something 
> illegal about using or distributing VLC.
>
> I know many of you belong to more than one list, so sorry for the 
> cross-posting, but I'm trying to cover all interested parties, and I 
> think this issue is important, as many of us are using VLC as clients.
>
> Thanks,
> Frank Fulchiero
> Digital Media Specialist
> Connecticut College
>
>
>
>
>
>