Rahul Sundaram wrote:
* When the user clicks a mp3 file, instead of missing codec errors
there will be a popup where the user can either choose to learn about
Free (in both ways) alternatives or click to install the free codec
supplied by Fluendo (Fleundo has the necessary patent licenses so this
is a legal in US) which is under a MIT X11 license or cancel the whole
thing. The user experience here is very similar to what happens when
you visit a website which needs Flash plugin the first time in Firefox
except that in addition we would explain to them that there are better
Free alternatives and the reason why we don't provide these codecs by
default in Fedora. This way we get to keep Fedora entirely Free and open
source software while solving the usability issue of not being able to
play some of the content to a good extend (wont be very helpful folks
who dont network access so it is not 100% solved yet).
* For the other paid as well as proprietary codecs, the user would be
directed to a Fedora Project page where they can again learn about
better Free alternatives. In the page we would also list Fluendo as a
vendor providing licensed and paid proprietary codecs. If there are
vendors who are involved we can very well list them. So there is a level
playing field here.
Comments?
Thank you for the clarification. The only problem I see, if I
understand you, is that the mp3 codec is sole-sourced to Fluendo. I
understand that Fluendo is the only vendor to providing a legal
alternative today, but we should have the ability to allow multiple
vendors at that step.