From: Rick Moen (rick at domain linuxmafia.com)
Date: Fri 14 Sep 2001 - 16:04:05 IST
begin Gavin McCullagh quotation:
> One question. There was a recent question as to whether Quicktime
> stuff could be played on linux ever and many sid no cos "the codecs were
> totally proprietary" (sorry if i got this wrong). However, MPlayer appears
> to take windows codecs in the form of compiled dlls etc. Does this mean it
> could take the codec for QT from windows and play quicktime or not?
Speaking just for myself, what I said was
(http://www.linux.ie/pipermail/ilug/2001-July/034157.html):
At LinuxWorld NYC, last year, TransGaming Technologies CEO Gavriel
State showed me Apple's QuickTime 5 beta for Win32[1] running on Linux
(Debian 2.2 potato) using TransGaming's DirectX v. 7 extensions to
WINE -- playing the Sorenson-encoded movie preview of The Phantom
Menace, among other things. Pretty cool stuff -- and pretty much the
only possible method, until the patent expires or exclusive-licensee
Apple Computer starts allowing third-party implementations (or Hell
freezes over -- whichever come first).
The point being that, where software patents stand in the way[1],
about the only Linux-playback strategy that won't be subject to legal
challenge is precisely to find ways to use licensed code from other
operating systems (e.g., Win32 codec DLLs).
[1] Enlightened parts of the world, e.g., Europe, do not allow software
patents.
-- Cheers, Founding member of the Hyphenation Society, a grassroots-based, Rick Moen not-for-profit, locally-owned-and-operated, cooperatively-managed, rick at domain linuxmafia.com modern-American-English-usage-improvement association
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