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Illegal Codecs Put Me Off Linux

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Software

OK, I’ll be honest with you, the more I use Linux, the more I’m warming to it. In fact, the more exposure I have to the latest Ubuntu distro (7.04, Feisty Fawn) the more I want to integrate it into my existing ecosystem of PCs. I’m especially interested in rolling out Ubuntu onto older PCs and notebooks where installing Windows will put too much of a strain on the hardware. But there’s one aspect of Ubuntu, and Linux in general for that matter, that’s putting me off. This is the fact that to play a DVD or use WMA/WMV files I have to install codecs that are technically illegal to use.

Linux has a number of really strong points that go beyond the price (reliability, ease of use and low hardware requirements to name but a few), but the operating system falls short when it comes to legally supporting file formats such as MP3, WMA/WMV and DVDs. It’s not that you don’t have support for these formats available, it’s that adding support means entering into some really shady legal territory.

Here are some examples.

More Here.




what a wimp. boo hoo. I'm

what a wimp. boo hoo. I'm not bothered in the slightest. I bought a few DVD drives now which come budled with with a dvd player that plays DVD's on windows so Ive paid my licence for the dvd codec and i'm sure ive earned all the other codecs through buying windows utils & software over the years. So why should i pay twice or more for the ability to play the same video or movie format whether I use Windows or linux.

what about xine

What about xine-lib? It can play DVDs, wmv and mp3 without the win32codecs. Is that illegal as well?

VLC and klite in Windows

I'm not sure but are VLC (DVD playback) and k-lite codec packs (play anything) illegal in Windows? Rather than "paying" for anything in Windows, you can install them. I just don't know if they are illegal.

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