Remove proprietary codecs: What and How
 

Hi, I have tried many different Linux distros, and sometimes want to place them (like the LXDE) on older PCs to give away. However, most Linux flavors include proprietary multimedia codecs, which i understand in the US requires a license (and thus Flurendo sells the license for them. So i would like to simply remove the proprietary ones.

I know Linux Mint offers a version that does not have them by default, and it seems Fedora does not, and am not sure about any others, but i would like to any distro and just remove the proprietary codecs.

Can someone give me a list of the file names, and where they would be? Thanks

Well, I don't know about instructions that would work for every distro, but usually uninstalling a "restricted-extras" package will remove proprietary codecs.

Codecs are not installed by Fedora, OpenSUSE, or the special US version of Mint. There's not necessarily a simple way of removing them: I can't remember a distro that has a single "restricted" package (I try to forget my last experience of Arch!) and I've seen them called several different things. Frankly I'd say that no-one is going to come checking the computers for codecs and the patenting of them was only allowed by an ignorant judge misunderstanding the law anyway, as well as being stupid. But I tend to put my personal beliefs above the law: it's obviously up to you.

Thanks. But some come with the installation and may not be marked.

on opensuse all of them are in the packman repo
see:
http://en.opensuse.org/Restricted_formats

just do not install that repo and you will never be able to watch any video other that ogg
and will not be able to listen to anything other than flac

there are some open codecs so some music and videos might be able to be watched

this can be solved by uninstalling the multimedia players
and not installing flash will stop them from watching swf vids in firefox

but will not stop people from using html5

Thanks, but if i only knew which files they were then i could uninstall them. And i understand that this is a issue of debate, http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-505050.html, but from what i read at least some are illegal, and even W/8 no longer ships with the ability to play DVD's unless you buy the Media Center. I would like them all to be free like Linux, but some people write code for a living, and others write books....

In any case, if i just knew what codecs are at issue i could find them.

Well, i am not trying to stop anyone from watching flash, but want to be legal myself, and while i can use the few major distros that that do not come with them installed, i want to be able to use any distro and just uninstall the proprietary licensed media files, if anyone know what they all are.

just use the normal standard install dvd's

the OS's with them HAVE PAID the licenses fees

Conical PAID the "extortion fee" to the Mpeg licensing authority to use it

Novell paid for some things in SELD

so just use the normal everyday standard install dvd's

I understand that is the situation, but someone must know what the names of these codecs are.

it really depends on what you are using
if for example you are using GStreammer some will be called
the " gstreamer-(good , bad, ugly )" rpm's / deb's
-- yes they are called "the good the bad and the ugly"
"gstreamer-0_10-plugins-ffmpeg"

or
ffmpeg

or
mplayer
-- you can use Xine or gstreamer OR the mplayer BUILT codecs ( can ONLY!! be used on mplayer)
the 2011 ALL package
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/rele...110131.tar.bz2

and that is only SOME of the video ONLY

and not music

Yes, there are names, but again (re-read post #3) they vary with each distro, and sometimes between VERSIONS of distros. There are no 'standard' names/locations. Again, they do not, by default come installed on ANY version of Linux.
No, they don't. The 'proprietary' drivers have to be installed separately, and you have to put some effort (very little), into doing it. You don't get them unless you install them, period. You can play some formats which are not 'proprietary' by default...the ones you can play mean they're NOT 'proprietary'.
And if you only read and understood what you've been told, you wouldn't post the same request multiple times. Again...there are no standard names/locations. Try reading the DATE on the article...that was SEVEN YEARS AGO. Read something up to date and more informative:
http://www.neowin.net/news/watching-...mostly-illegal

It boils down to this: It's technically illegal, because there is no 'Linux Corporation' that makes EVERY version of Linux that paid the corporate extortion fee. Why on earth would it be ILLEGAL for you to watch a DVD that you LEGALLY PURCHASED AND OWN??? This would be as asinine as you not driving the car you purchased, because you didn't pay some third-party the fee that lets you open the door. If you are really that uptight about obeying a 'law' (and in this case, a law that was enacted due to stupidity and corporate pressure), then sell your old computers with NO operating system at all.
Wrong. You are perfectly able to play DVD's in Windows 8. What you are NOT able to do is get the Microsoft Media Player for free...yet there are MANY options for Windows that ARE free:
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-...-in-windows-8/
And what's your point here? People also wrote code and gave it away for free, to play DVD's...so where's the problem using it? Does everyone who writes a book go into libraries and take all the copies, so that only people who PAY can read them? No, sorry...they don't.

Please do some research on this. If you want to be 'legal', there is a $25 player for Linux that is...pat yourself on the back for paying money to a company for NO GOOD REASON. They DO NOT protect the artists or producers of content at all...the only people that benefit from this is the company that came up with this idea, and greased enough palms to get it enacted.

There are two things at issue here.

1. The codecs for playing formats like mp3, mp4, etc. These are patented in the USA. Whether the law was actually intended to allow algorithms to be patented is very dubious, but under current case law in the USA you are expected to pay for them. But if you have any computer in your home that has a commercial OS, then you have paid; as I understand it, you only have to pay once. Companies trading in the US do not want to be sued for encouraging or aiding patent violation, so distros like OpenSUSE and Fedora do not supply codecs, and magazines do not put codecs in their cover disks. But no-one is going to make any money by suing a private individual, especially as they'd have to prove that the distro was supplied to someone who didn't have Windows or OSX. That's why other US distros do supply codecs.

As I said, there is no standard way of naming them so you need knowledge of the distro to know how to remove them. This can be quite difficult: Mageia has two versions of ffmpeg, one supporting patented codecs and one not, but only distinguishable by the fact that they're in different repositories! Some distros have a file called w32codec, but neither of mine has.

2. The decoder for commercial DVDs is, I believe, illegal in the US under the DMCA unless purchased from a licensed supplier like Microsoft or Apple. That does have a standard name: libdvdcss.

Thanks, but using even the PCLinuxOS/LXDE live CD i can play MPEG2; WMV2, WMA, MPEG-4 AVC; Mp3 and probably DVDs if the OS was installed. I have also read of other distros which come with proprietary multimedia codecs.

At that point i had been just not to do not install that restricted-extras repo, or that uninstalling a "restricted-extras" package will remove proprietary codecs, but if they came with the distro it seems they would not be listed as extras. And another poster said there is not necessarily a simple way of removing them. But I still thought there could be some list of files.

OK.

Yes, that was one I had seen before and was looking for, esp. the 108 comments.

I would think it was more like paying for a translator to read something written in a language you could not understand. And those who write code which allows communication of data, music, video, etc. should be able to gain income for their work, as should the one creating what is communicated, the "how" this is to be done being the issue, and which relates to operating systems as well. I would say that if you have a DVD player, then you have paid for the license if the player has paid for it. But then you have other license codecs and the authors looking to gain income for their work.

However, i am not looking to sell anything, but want to be legal myself, as well as give away that which is legal. Yet I am not defending unreasonable restrictions or a "nanny state" scenario, but I do want to be legal.

Correction: I did know W/8 was able, but meant to say legally, as discussed and debated in the neowin thread comments referred to, while i good short read on that is here: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/if-vl...microsoft/4962.

I have zero objection to giving away your work for free, as i do, and declaring your work public domain or other licensing that allows free sharing, but copyright laws do forbid copying protected material outside "fair use" until the protection runs out, although i understand an archive copy may by made. And unlike software, you cannot copy books for a dime or so and potentially easily provide the whole town with one, leaving the author with virtually no income for his work.

This is not a matter of pride (or about be sued), nor do i agree with restrictions driven perhaps by corporate greed, nor do i agree with all laws that are made, yet i want to keep them, or at least their intent in certain cases. But although I understood the level and temperature of debate this could involve, I am trying to be legal and thus asked for the file names, and now know of a couple names. Some may be in /usr/lib/codecs or /usr/local/lib/codecs while a compilation of useful ones used by Mplayer, not just propriety ones I assume, can be seen by opening the compressed file http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/rele...110131.tar.bz2

And thanks for your input.

Thanks. This is helpful.

If you want a distro without any proprietary stuff, try gNewSense:
http://www.gnewsense.org/