[mythtv-users] MythTV vs Media Center - funny

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Sun Jan 21 17:11:25 UTC 2007


On Jan 21, 2007, at 9:41 AM, Kevin Hulse wrote:

>
> 	That may be. However, it is still a very useful anecdote.
> One of the oft repeated mantras from the weenies that troll in Linux
> groups is how Linux doesn't come with any suitable codecs and you
> have to cobble things together yourself installing things like DVD
> playback support.


Actually it's more than just the codecs. In the USA it is a technical  
violation of the DMCA to play back a CSS-protected DVD on an  
unlicensed system.

So I can have a DVD that I paid for, and a computer that I paid for,  
and it is technically illegal for me to watch that DVD on my Linux OS  
on that computer.

Then there is the MPEG tax (which is what you probably mean by  
"codecs"), which was paid when you bought your DVD drive, or, more  
properly, the software that came with it. Unless you bought an OEM  
drive, or a used one, or one from offshore...

I really do try and do what I can to obey the law, but even attorneys  
working full time in the field can't agree on what the law really  
means, and even their "learned opinions" are just that, opinions,  
until and unless tested in court.

I figure that as long as I am not doing anything that costs the  
copyright-holders a sale or rental I am on the moral high ground, if  
not the legal such :-)

When you enact laws that the average citizen can't comprehend, and  
even lawyers working in the field can't agree on the meaning of, you  
have ceased to be a "democracy" (or representational republic). But  
don't worry, everything will be fine as soon as the rest of the world  
is "just like us". :-)

While this might seem off-topic it really isn't. This is, after all,  
the MythTV User's list, and I would bet that, at least in the USA,  
every MythTV user is in technical violation of federal law in at  
least some respect, and most of them don't even realize it.


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