We've been using the VLC player for some time to launch some videos from the CD browser of TheOpenCD. This time we have also decided to include it as an actual featured program on the disc as well. As always we have several issues and questions
As before, there is the issue of deCSS. We would prefer to distribute a copy by default that does not have deCSS on it so that the same version of the CD can be distributed to all sorts of places without concern. TheOpenCD is increasingly being distributed by schools, universities and government agencies who tend to ask specifically whether there are any IP issues to be concerned about, and we need to be able to answer clearly No. (in fact most of these people are unfamiliar with open source and are really asking about the copyright of the applications themselves, but still, there cannot be any gray issues).
Last time I solved this by simply removing some .DLLs, which was fine for running from the CD, but now that we plan to actually let users install it on their machines, we should probably do it properly. Murray mentioned in this tread that it was a matter of compiling with the --disable-dvdcss option. But also that Windows compilation was a bit tricky. I wonder if we might have some help with that? (it might of course again simply be a question of removing DLLs and re-packing, please advise)
So, we would like to keep deCSS off the CD, but we don't want to just duck the issue. We all feel quite strongly about the dangers of software patents, and would like to inform our users about it. So we would like to point our users to your original version on-line that they can download, or ideally a small patch that would enable DVD functionality for them. This should be accompanied with text explaining the issues of software patents, using the VLC/deCSS issue as a clear example. Perhaps we should write such a text in collaboration. We could also include relevant literature such as 'Free Culture' by Lawrence Lessig.
Also, what would you recommend as the best method for running it off the CD? Previously, with our old browser technology, we launched the player with some command line options, including resolution and the file name. We then grayed out the launch button for 5 seconds to stop people pressing it twice while waiting for the player to launch. I understand start times have improved in v0.8, so that should help, but we might still want to do something similar. This time we are actually using a Mozilla based browser technology. I see that v0.8 has a Mozilla plug-in. How does that work? Does it play in the browser itself like quicktime does, or does it launch a separate window?
Cheers,
Henrik
http://www.theopencd.org/
