MPlayer svn checkout

anti_user · 06-12-2011, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Pettit

Hi @dugan. I think the real problem here is actually indicated in the OP's signature :
Sorry for bad English
Russian Linux Beginner

I don't think he meant any harm at all.

Im understand you, really. I dont understand difference between this line in in Slackbuild and if i run Slackbuild with USE_PATENTS=no.

Mark Pettit · 06-13-2011, 01:04 AM

@anti-user - due to the most ridiculous patent system in the world, the US Government has allowed companies to patent software methods. In this particular case, it means that MPlayer is not allowed to use certain libraries because patents are held on them. The 'not-allowed' means that nobody may distribute compiled programs with these methods in them. But you can download the source code and compile it yourself. Now - if you build with 'patents=No' you get a MPlayer binary that can't play certain files. But if you compile with 'patents=Yes' then you get the full library of codecs, including the ones that are patented (like mp3/h264 etc). Stupid heh ! Luckily you and I live in countries that don't have that nonsense. Yet.

anti_user · 06-13-2011, 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Pettit

@anti-user - due to the most ridiculous patent system in the world, the US Government has allowed companies to patent software methods. In this particular case, it means that MPlayer is not allowed to use certain libraries because patents are held on them. The 'not-allowed' means that nobody may distribute compiled programs with these methods in them. But you can download the source code and compile it yourself. Now - if you build with 'patents=No' you get a MPlayer binary that can't play certain files. But if you compile with 'patents=Yes' then you get the full library of codecs, including the ones that are patented (like mp3/h264 etc). Stupid heh ! Luckily you and I live in countries that don't have that nonsense. Yet.

yes... and what will be legally to distribute Mplayer - to compile with patents=No? but if i want to have fully working MPlayer and dont distribute this (using only mine) i should compile this with patents=YES flag?
If so, i would like to distribute this and compile with patents=NO flag.

Mark Pettit · 06-13-2011, 02:14 AM

That depends (I think) on exactly where you distribute from. If from the UK (like AlienBob does), or from your country (Russia), or from my country (South Africa), then you are fine and you can build and distribute with patents=Yes. Of course, whether citizens in the US are allowed to download those binaries may be a different issue - I'm not sure about that. Either way, as I said before, your efforts are best appreciated when you show us exactly how you did it and what you changed to make it work. Not that MPlayer is all that hard to build anyway - compared to the effort that AlienBob has put into his vlc slackbuild. Now there's a work of art !

anti_user · 06-13-2011, 02:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Pettit

That depends (I think) on exactly where you distribute from. If from the UK (like AlienBob does), or from your country (Russia), or from my country (South Africa), then you are fine and you can build and distribute with patents=Yes. Of course, whether citizens in the US are allowed to download those binaries may be a different issue - I'm not sure about that. Either way, as I said before, your efforts are best appreciated when you show us exactly how you did it and what you changed to make it work. Not that MPlayer is all that hard to build anyway - compared to the effort that AlienBob has put into his vlc slackbuild. Now there's a work of art !

Great, im very pleased to Patrick, that he made this Slackbuild with much options...