Slashback: TIPS, FatWallet, MPlayer 315
Facts is facts, Ma'am. joebeone writes "WalMart has backed down [AScribe.org] from it's DMCA claim in the FatWallet case[1] after FatWallet countered that facts are uncopyrightable (at least in the US). Let this be a lesson to those who would use the DMCA to unjustly intimidate websites into removing content. I definitely think that Boalt Hall's Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic deserves some major credit for sticking up for the little guys who don't have the litigatory resources that companies like WalMart have.
[1] WalMart claimed that their day-after-thanksgiving sale prices were copyrightable."
Maybe they just changed the drop location. An anonymous reader writes "There was one small ray of light in the Homeland Security Act. A provision inserted in the bill killed the Justice Department's TIPS initiative. You'll recall that TIPS was the DoJ's proposal to create a domestic spy network using ordinary citizens. And I was hoping to join up and inform them that John Ashcroft wears women's underwear. Oh well ..."
Best way to play back "L.A. Confidential." An anonymous reader writes "The best media player for *nixes, MPlayer, has just gotten better with the ability to play Windows Media Player 9 (WMV9 and WMA9) files. When Sorensen playback was added the only remaining codecs were the Window Media Player ones. Now that this is complete, Linux finally seems to have a complete solution for multimedia playback. It just remains for the mainstream distros to include this gem."
Measure three or four times at least, cut once. jdevons writes "The Owner-Builder Book that I reviewed a while ago has been updated. The author reads slashdot regularly and included many of the ideas and suggestions offered in the slashdot comments ..."
Jeff, Rob and Chris in their Hollywood makeup. updog writes "The film Revolution OS, which has been discussed on Slashdot here and here, is now available on DVD at Netflix (btw, it's interesting to note that this Netflix version is sub-licensed under the guise of pay-per-view television, and the director J.T.S. Moore wasn't even aware of its existence until recently.)
A 2 Disc Special Edition DVD will be available in January 2003, and will include additional interviews, bonus material, and better video quality over the Netflix version. You can make sure that you're notified when it's released by requesting info here. Finally, I've written a review of the Netflix version of the DVD, which you can read here."
Next year's stocking stuffer, maybe? An anonymous reader writes "nvmax.com is running a story/press release explaining how Dynamism.com is teaming up with the Zaurus Open Source development community to bring the Sharp Zaurus SL-C700 to English!. I need to get one!"
What I want is C-64 style Aztec. retro128 writes "For all of your old schoolers out there, Tierra Entertainment has released a re-make of King's Quest II, which includes original art, completely redone music, and a few extra things not seen in the original game (some early screen shots hinted at a town, which did not exist in the original). What's remarkable is that Tierra has no affiliation with Sierra whatsoever, and is driven by two developers who wish to remain anonymous. I've played their re-make of KQ1 and it's up to snuff. Check out the main page or go straight to the good stuff."
Who needs TIPS (Score:5, Insightful)
Man, remember when we were worried about Carnivore?
Re:Who needs TIPS (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah. Good times, good times.
Re:Who needs TIPS (Score:3, Funny)
I always feel much better when I'm facing 2 TITS.
<ob Smirnoff>In Soviet Russia the tits suck you!
Re:Who needs TIPS (Score:3, Funny)
MPlayer (Score:2, Interesting)
find xine at http://xine.sourceforge.net
Re:MPlayer (Score:3)
The machine is a Shuttle Spacewalker SV24. MPlayer performance can vary greatly on what X output driver you're using, I think I was using the xv drive. Also if you're playing from a cdrom, you'll want to add something like cache=8192 to your config file.
Actually I haven't used that machine in quite some time, it's currently collecting dust for me in my room.
What I really want in mplayer now is variable slomotion and frame by frame stuff.
Re:MPlayer (Score:3, Informative)
BTW don't waste your time unless you really feel like building it. Penguin Liberation Front (plf.zarb.org) has all the mplayer stuff you need including the codecs in rpm form. Add it as an urpmi source and urpmi mplayer, it'll download and install everything.
Re:MPlayer (Score:2, Informative)
Most DVD menus I've tried worked in a sufficiently new MPlayer.
Re:MPlayer (Score:3, Informative)
Remove the $HOME/.mplayer directory (Score:5, Informative)
I got burnt by this too. Shut down MPlayer. Remove the .mplayer subdirectory (rm -Rf $HOME/.mplayer). Restart MPlayer, and it recreates the .mplayer settings with default values.
I miss TIPS (Score:5, Insightful)
I am perpetually shocked at the willingness of Americans to give away the rights for which their ancestors suffered so much.
Menace the average modern American with anything halfway alarming -- terrorism, crime or any other of today's various boogeymen -- and in place of their forebearers' bravery, idealism and resolve, they will show cowardice, surrender and an astounding aptitude for cognative dissonence. They will gratefully trade their liberties for even the illusion of security, and will gladly indenture themselves to anyone who claims to offer them safety. How far we've fallen from the day when men like Washinton, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt fought for and to protect the central ideas of American Democracy.
How we've betrayed the bravery of our heritage.
I believe that if America stands for anything, it's the rights which it is supposed to guarantee its citizens. Strip that away, and what are you left with? Nothing more than a location on a map and base nationalism. To give away our hard-won rights is disgusting cowardice, and to strip them from others is nothing less than treason.
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:4, Insightful)
The mouthbreather doesn't care about freedom of speech; his opinions are the popular ones. If the popular opinion changes, so will his. The mouthbreather doesn't care about freedom of the press; he just wants to be entertained.
What the mouthbreather really wants is to get through his day, safely, and have it be exactly the way it was the day before.
In "Easy Rider," Jack N's character says something along the lines of "People 'round here will go on and on about freedom, but if you show them a man who's really free, they'll hate him."
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:4, Insightful)
This prompted me to do a little more research into the man and found he had quite amazing insight into the mind of the government and the people. For example, I found another marvelous passage that seems to apply well to this very situation as it did many decades ago:
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:4, Insightful)
quite surprised Americans allowed something
like TIPS or the whole Patriot Act to
happen in the first place.
Always thought the American constitution
allow enough power to the authorities
to defend the country and safeguard the
freedom of its citizens.
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:3, Interesting)
It hasn't been up to the people to insure their freedom for about 200 years. It's up the the courts and ultimately the Supreme Court to strike down unconstitutional laws.
Congress passing oppressive laws is nothing new. Fortunately, the Supreme Court striking them down is nothing new either.
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:3, Insightful)
I am not going to spend too much time discussing my personal historical feelings, but maintaining virtually autonomous states seems redundant to most people, including most Americans. But, when the revolution comes, the state governments will continue even if Washington DC is nuked off the face of the earth.
The founding fathers very well knew the size of the United States, and knew that while they were creating a New Rome, their empire would suffer the same fate. Instead of fracturing in haphazard ways as did Europe with the collapse of the empire, the United States is completely capable of functioning without a central authority.
What the bureaucrats don't realize is how truly irrelevant they are. Their days are numbered. I believe a violent revolution will not occur in the US, but will evolve much as the evolution of Europe. Soon, Washington DC will become completely irrelevant to the average citizen, just as Rome became irrelevant to the citizens of Gaul as France was born. Any student of US law will realize the radical differences between California and New York will only amplify in time. There is already a radical difference in behavior, speech, mannerism, dress... Hell, California is already larger than many, if not most, European nations. Just a thought.
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not sure how you define "function" in this context. If it comes to war-- which is what I assume you're talking about, what with the "nuked off the face of the earth" thing and all-- the several states will be utterly defenseless. An occupying force could march into any state capitol in the country, gun down the legislature, and take control with virtually no organized opposition.
And let's not forget something that's even more critical than defense: the economy. Our economy is managed-- to the extent that it's managed at all-- from a central bank in Washington. That bank issues all U.S. currency, and backs it. If it disappeared... well, chaos.
And finally, just to pick one example of many, one that, as a restaurant owner, is near and dear to my heart, we have the USDA and the FDA. There are essentially no state-scale systems for the inspection, grading, and certification of foodstuffs. If the Federal government were to evaporate, we'd be back in the days of unregulated food production. Could we live with it? Sure. But I sure as hell wouldn't want to.
The Federal government is far from irrelevant.
Oh, and your thing about "a radical difference in behavior, speech, mannerism, dress?" Utter crap. There are essentially no cultural differences between any two points in this country, notwithstanding differences that are based on factors that transcend geography, such as race or ethnicity. You can get on a plane and go from Miami to Houston to Phoenix to San Francisco to Denver to Omaha to Chicago to Detroit to Boston to Richmond to Atlanta and back to Miami and not find any significant differences between any of them.
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:3, Informative)
Why not? Drop an infantry division or two into Colorado-- or, more likely, bring them up through the Rio Grande valley and into Colorado from the south-- and you'll have a fight on your hands.
So, there are no Federal Reserve Banks in Denver, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, et cetera?
Sure, just like there are branch offices of the FBI, the ATF, and so on. But if you remove the head, the body dies. Federal Reserve banks can't act autonomously.
We are NOT the same as Easterners.
Do you speak English? Do you read and write with the same letters everybody else uses? Do you marry, and raise children in family units? Do you eat three meals a day, with knives and forks? Do you attend church, mosque, or synagogue-- or not-- depending on your preferences? Do you bury or burn your dead? Do you dance or sing? Do you cut your grass? Do you drink alcohol or smoke tobacco? Do you cook your food before eating it? Do you eat, essentially, the same foods that people from "Los Angeles or Boston" eat?
Sorry, but "we buy groceries six weeks at a time" doesn't qualify as a significant cultural difference. If you had a different language, or different customs, or both, that might mean something. But what kind of car you drive doesn't amount to a hill of beans from an anthropological point of view.
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:2)
Anyway, that's a really great post. Are you a member of the JPFO [jpfo.org]? They are the greatest defenders of the Bill of Right that we have, AFAICT.
Also, are you aware that your next post will be your 2^10th? Make it count!
-Peter
*bzzt* (Score:2)
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:3, Insightful)
No. Burr, Hamilton and Davis fought for Democracy.
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln fought for a Republic. FDR fought for a Socialist system and broke the Constitution everywhich way in the 30s.
Lincoln also violated the US Constitution so much more than the last 5 administrations have.
Maryland under Martial Law, Newspaper Editors thrown in jail or deported, etc.
Back in the time of SOVIET RUSSIA (Score:2, Flamebait)
Back in the time of SOVIET RUSSIA, America stood for something.
IAO (Score:2)
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:5, Insightful)
Total Poindexter Awareness (Score:5, Informative)
Tell him how you really feel by sending him a letter:
John M. and Linda Poindexter
10 Barrington Fare, Rockville, MD, 20850
source 1 [cryptome.org]
source 2 [sfweekly.com]
Roosevelt? (Score:3, Informative)
Or are you talking about Teddy? If the latter, I don't really remember him doing anything to promote freedom, except perhaps his whole trust busting thing.
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:2, Insightful)
The best way for a totalitarian regime to maintain power is to involve the population in their own oppression. The people in power have the work of rooting out potential subversives done for them, while the people under control believe they're doing something great for their country by rooting out those subversives who threaten the nation's stability.
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:4, Funny)
This reminds me of that age-old joke about the cold war, set in Russia;
The police arrive at a man's house, shove him aside, and proceed to dig up his entire garden! The man stands calmly by, watching as they dig and dig, tossing clumps of soil aside and back again in a fervent search. Finding nothing, they grunt in disgust and leave.
The man walks to his neighbor's house and says;
"Thanks! So tomorrow I phone and tell them you have secret documents stashed in the logs in your woodshed, right?"
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:2, Insightful)
Not quite.
He was given immunity for his Congressional testimony, which many people believe saved Reagan's ass from the Clinton treatment. Funny thing is, those same people believe Poindexter lied his ass off to save Reagan's ass. Therefore, Poindexter's immunity gave him the power to say practically anything in order to protect his boss, including flat-out lies that no one else would contradict, since they also worked for the same guy.
I'm reading Veil by Bob Woodward right now. It's amazing, some of the legal backflips the Reagan administration and CIA had to perform in order to justify things like the contra war in Nicaragua and arms sales to Iran through Israel. That last pairing alone, which I'd been unaware of until reading the book, made my head spin - Israel participating with Iran in a US plan to fund right-wing death squads in Latin America? Truth is stranger than fiction.
Re:I miss TIPS (Score:2, Interesting)
MPlayer (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:MPlayer (Score:3)
I like mplayer because: speed, features, supported formats, MENCODER (lets you encode arbitrary video sources--save internet streams, DVDs, etc.)
MPlayer (Score:3, Informative)
xine: http://xine.sourceforge.net/
mplayer: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/
Re:MPlayer (Score:2, Funny)
xine: http://xine.sourceforge.net/
mplayer: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/
Re:MPlayer (Score:3, Informative)
On a side note I actually got to finally watch the Ellen Feiss ad last week to see what all the fuss was all about. But since I'm using a 166Mhz it was a bit slow, so I just used mencoder to transform the quicktime file into divx5. Got almost double the frames while viewing and no noticeable quality loss. Oh yea and smaller file size as well.
Re:MPlayer (Score:3, Informative)
The good news is that both xine and MPlayer are far better than any player I've tried on that other platform I boot into for games, although none of them have GUIs worth using. After getting used to using the arrow keys for skipping back and forth, F for full screen, etc., I must say: what the fuck do you need a GUI for in a media player anyway.
Being able to reconstruct the index of incomplete
WMA 9 code from aviplayer/avifile (Score:3, Insightful)
http://avifile.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
MPlayer in distros (Score:2, Informative)
Re:MPlayer in distros (Score:3, Interesting)
For instance, if I wanted to watch a Sorenson Quicktime file, I have only two options: Codeweavers crossover plugin (which is excellent) and MPlayer. (I don't consider running the quicktime player through wine an option worth even considering. If you've ever done it you'd understand) I'm not aware of any other media players that support Sorenson, but if there are they'd be no better.
Re:MPlayer in distros (Score:2, Informative)
Huh? What do you think the Crossover plugin is?
It's a cusomized wine, with some install scripts. Notting more.
Some of the wine code must have been altered to make WMP 6.4 work, I can't get my wine to do that, but for the QuickTime all there is to it is to copy the QuickTime part of the wine.conf file in Crossover to you wine.conf, and everything works perfectly. I haven't noticed any difference in speed using the Crossover plugin compared to vanilla wine.
To make wine run QuickTime put this in your wine config:
[AppDefaults\\quicktimeplayer.exe\\DllOv
"ddraw" = ""
"*" = "builtin, native, so"
- Ost
Apple unofficially likes Crossover (Score:3, Interesting)
Is Revolution OS DVD encrypted? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Is Revolution OS DVD encrypted? (Score:4, Informative)
Nope. At least not the free DVD I snagged at LinuxWorld (signed by the director, no less). I was under the impression (I think it was mentioned at my LUG meeting) that the final DVDs would not include CSS encoding and will be region free (0) as well, just like the free ones.
Re:Is Revolution OS DVD encrypted? (Score:5, Funny)
videogame (pressure-sensitive arrow mat sold separately). Users will be required to
finish three songs, before being allowed to relax and watch the movie.
MPlayer experimental codecs (Score:4, Informative)
DVD CSS (Score:2, Redundant)
Is it illegal to use DeCSS? (Score:2)
Re:DVD CSS (Score:2)
Re:DVD CSS (Score:2)
Sucks that I still have to boot into Windoze to play the vast majority of my DVDs.
MPlayer (Score:5, Insightful)
It won't happen. Red Hat wouldn't even include MP3 support after the recent codec scare. To make matters worse, a lot of the support for third-party codecs are binary-based, ripped-from-windows or other packages (in the form of DLLs). I don't see this happening any time soon, at least.
Re:MPlayer (Score:2)
You can compile mplayer without support for specific codecs. You don't need single DLL to watch - for example - DivX
MPlayer debs (Score:2, Informative)
/joeyo
Re:MPlayer (Score:4, Informative)
WalMart backed down after Thanksgiving (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:WalMart backed down after Thanksgiving (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why FatWallet needs to keep pressing the charges of the 512(f) provision and not let Wal*Mart settle out of court. Wal*Mart committed a very real crime and Wal*Mart must suffer the consequences of their actions. The DMCA must be shown to be a bad law.
Scenario: I threaten you with a gun for your money. Even were I to give the money back and say, "Sorry, no hard feelings," I would still go to jail.
Fuck Wal*Mart and fuck the DMCA.
Re:WalMart backed down after Thanksgiving (Score:5, Funny)
Re:WalMart backed down after Thanksgiving (Score:4, Funny)
Re:WalMart backed down after Thanksgiving (Score:2, Funny)
SLOW DOWN.
(If you drink and post, you're a bloody idiot)
QFG2. (Score:3, Insightful)
There was nothing like going out and fighting forever until you were SO strong nothing was a match for you...
EGA games *always* need to be redone... They were our classics.
Ask and ye shall receive... (Score:2)
And so how do YOU know about his underwear? (Score:2)
I'm sure that the FBI/Secret Service/Brownshirts would have taken you into custody until they found out how you knew THAT little tidbit. And probably kept you there for a long, long time, once they did find out. Only those who are closest to him (wink wink, nudge nudge) are supposed to know.
KQ (Score:3, Insightful)
That game got me so hooked on computer games i still cant pull myself away.
hmmm.... maybe this isnt a good thing. It's like having nostalgia for my first hit off Whitney's crack pipe. oh wait, she's too rich for crack - and I'm too poor for games these days.
Isn't it a little late for Wal-Mart to back down? (Score:4, Insightful)
Pardon me, but I don't think that Wal-Mart's "seen the light" or become a good guy in this regard.
Wal-Mart's Bluff (Score:4, Interesting)
It would probably cost Wal-Mart less to just pay FatWallet's legal costs rather than go to court. In the end it seems even if FatWallet wins the legal battle they still have lost the war. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Wal-Mart does the same thing next year supposing FatWallet posts their sale prices early again.
Re:Wal-Mart's Bluff (Score:3, Insightful)
If that's true, then they shot themselves in the foot. When the next major retail holiday rolls around, nobody (including FatWallet) will be inclined to take anything down.
Re:Wal-Mart's Bluff (Score:4, Insightful)
Hopefully you are right and someone stands up to them next year, we'll see.
Re:Wal-Mart's Bluff (Score:4, Informative)
Whatever that judge is who allowed the subpeona to go through on this patently bogus claim must be pretty red-faced right about now. As news of these kinds of shenanigans gets out into the wider legal community, you'll likely start seeing fewer attempts, because judges can come down pretty hard on frivolous lawsuits.
Re:Wal-Mart's Bluff (Score:3, Informative)
Walmart never backed downs about the prices, they backed down on their demands for FatWallet to turn over the names of the people who posted the prices.
While that implies that they didn't have grounds for a DMCA claim, it doesn't prove it.
If FatWallet backs down from their countersuit, the whole thing could just happen again next year. No precedent will have been set.
DVD (Score:2)
oops.
I love Mplayer (Score:2)
Mainstream distros to include MPlayer? (Score:2)
Unless of course you're talking about distributing it without the codecs, in which case it's useless anyway. If people have to hunt down the codecs they may as well grab the most recent version of the software while their at it.
Re:Mainstream distros to include MPlayer? (Score:5, Informative)
netflix queue (Score:2)
From the Tierra FAQ... (Score:2)
Seriously, though, this is cool. My wife loves all of those games--even their mention is enough to spark a half hour nostalgia session about the good ol' Amiga gaming days. Methinks I shall have to surreptitiously put this on her machine at home...
Re:From the Tierra FAQ... (Score:2)
This sounds like the philosophy at my previous company: Better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission.
Any news on the rest of the FatWallet case? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is not a win unless they are hurt for their actions. They still kept FatWallet from getting the word out. They've still used the DMCA to stifle legitimate works. And it hasn't cost them a thing.
Re:Any news on the rest of the FatWallet case? (Score:2)
Walmart forced FatWallet to vomit? Man, that's harsh.
mplayer (Score:2, Interesting)
Before someone mentions it, I know about Kapital and gnucash, they just generally don't connect to the banks, and have all the necessary features, but they're great if they meet your needs. They just don't meet mine yet. I also know about crossover office -- but I don't want to pay more money, when I already have windows.
Anyway, here's hoping Intuit ports their bread and butter.
Perjury? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Perjury? (Score:2)
Aztec (Score:5, Funny)
Gee, if I wanted that, I'd dust off my C-64 and play. They built those things solidly...nearly two decades, and I've had to replace the power supply brick. And that's it. Granted, use has tapered off significantly over the last decade, and the joysticks that have suffered from heavy usage need replacement, but still...
There's something to be said for avoiding the hard drive as a point of failure.
WMV 9 (Score:3, Funny)
Mplayer and Codecs -.MOV quicktime etc..... (Score:4, Informative)
and apt4rpm i was able to get
using apt-get install MPLAYER and ALL its plugins including transcode.
then:
apt-get install xmms*
## this will install xmms and all its plugins which include the codecs that will make the sound work for the quicktime movies.
have fun.....
Nex6
ENOUGH with the freedom talk! (Score:5, Funny)
If you aren't doing anything wrong, why are you afraid of people knowing what you're doing? We need total information awareness - privacy is only really NECESSARY for criminals.
You've got Monday Night Football. You've got your cheetos. You've even got your lagermeister. What more 'freedoms' do you need?
Big Brother is going to save us from the terrorists! I'll gladly sacrifice freedom for that!
Long live Ashcroft!
(moderators: please spot the sarcasm in this post.)
MPlayer on Mac OSX (Score:3, Informative)
It just doesn't seem fair how easy it is: no compiling, no tweaking, just install the package and it works. Still has some polishing (switching out of full screen stops the movie), but the source is all there. A must have.
Re:MPlayer on Mac OSX (Score:2)
Revolution OS in Australia? (Score:2)
Plugins (Score:2, Interesting)
MPlayer and recent (evil) legislation (Score:4, Interesting)
How will they sue the MPlayer people? Simple. They could sue under the anti-reverse-engineering clause of the DMCA. Or they could employ any number of other recent pro-corporate laws which are slowly making it illegal to reverse-engineer anything, even if it's necessary for you to do your work. (Remember, there is STILL no legal and MPAA-approved solution for playing your DVDs in Linux (let alone more obscure OSes like FreeBSD or OpenBSD)-- unless, of course, you count hooking up the output of your set-top DVD player into the video input of your TV tuner card...
Personally, I don't forsee any 'mainstream' Linux dists (if there really is such a thing in terms of desktop use
Remember: MPlayer was created using reverse engineering. The SPA/MPAA/RIAA/MS/etc. folks are really really pushing (and paying off congresspeople, naturally) to make reverse engineering a criminal offense. It may already be... this is a dangerous area, a legal powder-keg waiting to go off.
At BEST, MPlayer will be a "gray market" program for the forseeable future-- if not forever. Again, yes, I love it-- but I worry for it. More properly, I worry for its creators...
Re:MPlayer and recent (evil) legislation (Score:2)
Second, as I understand it, MPlayer uses the Win32 DLLs for playback just as WMP/QT/whatever-else does. The only way it could really be considered reverse engineering is if the APIs weren't published.
I'd say it's unlikely that anyone would try cracking down on MPlayer under the pretense of the DMCA, because it's not actually circumventing any access control mechanisms
Re:MPlayer and recent (evil) legislation (Score:4, Informative)
STEP 1: There is no support for codex X.
STEP 2: They add DLL support for codec X.
STEP 3: After a good amount of time spent reverse-engineering, they add native support for codec X.
It's the step 3 that's gonna really get them in trouble. Codecs only remain "DLL-only" in MPlayer for so long. After a time, the MPlayer guys figure out how to reverse-engineer the codec-- or someone else does, and the MPlayer guys adapt the code to their project...
Heck, the EULA for many of these DLLs may say "Only on approved operating systems", who knows... no one reads the things. Not even me.
Sorenson says it's okay (Score:3, Interesting)
Their new, just-announced Squeeze 3 is a really awesome encoding tool. QuickTime, Windows Media, RealMedia, Flash MX, and MPEG-4 support.
TIPS may not be dead yet... (Score:5, Insightful)
This [ala.org] is the relevant section that supposedly eliminated TIPS:
SEC. 880. PROHIBITION OF THE TERRORISM INFORMATION AND PREVENTION SYSTEM.
Any and all activities of the Federal Government to implement the proposed component program of the Citizen Corps known as Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) are hereby prohibited.
All it does is prohibit the proposed program under the Citizen Corps known as TIPS. A strict reading of the language could leave a way to revive the program under a different name.
It may seem a bit legalistic and paranoid, but legalities like that are precisely how unpalatable programs are implemented anyway.
WalMart got what IT WANTED! (Score:3)
MPlayer/Win32 Codecs (Score:3, Informative)
Sorta... MPlayer requires borrowed Win32 codecs in order to play back many formats. This does not make MPlayer any less complete (WMP requires the same codecs as well), but:
It just remains for the mainstream distros to include this gem.
While they might include MPlayer, I don't think the Win32 codecs will be included. Considering RedHat pulled all MP3 players from 8.0, I seriously doubt we'll find any DLL's in the next release.
MPlayer is awesome. I use it on my "media box" using the S-Video output on my ATI card. I use the Win32 codecs, and can play back almost anything I can play on the Windows box.
But as long as it requires Windows DLLs, it won't be taken seriously as a multi-format player by the major distros, embedded device developers, and so on...
TIPS in New York (Score:3, Interesting)
Beware of the Catch (Score:3, Interesting)
``If you didn't know: those codecs use Micro$oft's new API: DMO (its predecessor was DirectShow). The funny thing is that these codecs are still "Release Candidate" according to Micro$oft
Note the "Release Candidate". This suggests to me that M$ may change the interface, breaking MPlayer's implementation, before the final release. Just a thought.
---
A fool must now and then be right by chance.
I wonder if they will persue damages... (Score:4, Interesting)
According to the text of copyright law added by the DMCA, anybody who unjustly claims copyright in this manner invoking the DMCA is in comtempt of federal court. Depending on the severity of the claim, a judge could sentence walmart's lawyers to suspension of their practice for 30 days or more. This should be a lesson to big coporations to stop making illegal claims just to intimidate the little guy.
So my question is this: are they going to persue any more legal action against walmart? Or are they gonna let walmart off with a slap on the wrist. If the guy who posted the information origionally had complied, he would be just in the right place to sue for actual damages + compensation for the trouble (could be a big number, depending on the judge). And it would be a open and shut case.
Netflix and MPlayer... (Score:3, Informative)
Netflix has a history of spamming, and when contacted about the spamming does the spammy thing of listwashing the complainer. Obviously, you need to make your own choice, and if you choose to support a known spammer that is your right, but I strongly suggest that nobody use Netflix.
Second: Mplayer.
First of all, their site uses Mystery Meat Navigation [fixingyourwebsite.com] - You don't know what the buttons do until you mouse over them (at least, you don't if you don't have Javascript on). I would have hoped for better from a FOSS project.
Second of all, unless I am mistaken (which I could very well be) MPlayer uses Microsoft DLL's and Wine to play WMAs. Thus the answer to "Why don't the major distro's include MPlayer" - doing so would involve distributing Microsoft copyrighted material, and would therefor make the distro Non-Free (as well as getting the distro vender targeted for termination by the Microsoft lawyer-drones).
Re: Damn DMCA (Score:3, Funny)
> This legislation has been abused like a village bicycle!
Heh. My village had a girl nicknamed 'bicycle', for reasons that shouldn't need explaining.