[LUAU] Ubuntu... Legalities

[Jim Thompson]

On Jun 5, 2006, at 7:20 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:

>
> On Jun 5, 2006, at 6:25 PM, David Kiwerski wrote:
>
>> How would you explain Linspire's DVD player that plays commercial  
>> DVD's?
>
> I think he already did.
>
>> "The Linspire DVD player is a software multimedia player that  
>> includes legal, licensed commercial-quality codecs and auto- 
>> detection of DVDs to enhance the DVD playback experience under  
>> Linspire 4.5 and higher."  This from their website.
>
> Its not 'free' in either sense of the word.  It will cost you $9.95  
> *and* you have to be a CNR "member' ($19.95/year).
>
> http://www.linspire.com/lindows_products_details.php?product_id=11804
> http://www.linspire.com/products_cnr_whatis.php?tab=whatis

Not to put too fine a point on it, but, quoting the rest of the first  
URL above (which you appear to be unwilling to do):

---
How is the Linspire DVD player different from Xine and other DVD  
players available for Linux?
The Linspire DVD player is actually based on the Xine player, but  
there are three main differences: First, the Linspire DVD player  
includes a commercial license for the DVD playback decoding so you  
don't have to find, buy and install this on your own (this can be  
expensive and a tricky, complicated process).

Second, Linspire DVD player has been optimized for ease-of-use,  
making it one-click easy to install and use.

And third, Linspire DVD player has been integrated fully with  
Linspire, making things like auto-play possible so that when you put  
a DVD into your Linspire computer, it recognizes it and loads the DVD  
software automatically. Linspire users can also, if they choose,  
install the regular Xine player (without the items mentioned above)  
at no charge via CNR.
---

So what you get by sending $10 to Linspire is Xine plus a license to  
the CODECs you need to play DVDs, plus the "CNR" functions (which you  
only care about if you're running Linspire).   Most linux distros can  
be setup to auto-play DVDs.