MPlayer Alleges KISS Technology Violating GPL

bfree writes "Not for the first time, the people at MPlayer think they have found their code being distributed binary only, this time in at least one of KISS Techologies products. In their traditional quiet style the full story is now the first piece of news on their homepage including string comparisons between the player ROM and MPlayer. The 'evidence' presented relates to subtitle identification, where the KISS ROM includes the same list, in order, of subtitle formats as MPlayer (including their own format mpsub) and MPlayer's patterns for each of the formats are also there identically."

Re:A taste of their own medicine

[myzz]

ever thought why they are hosted in Hungary ?

They are hosted in Hungary, because main developers are hungarians?

Kiss off

[Bowie J. Poag]

Their fax number is busy... Either they took the ringer off, or other people have the same idea. ;)

The Devil himself?!?!

[kinema]

I don't suppose... could Keyser Soze be one of the MPlayer developers?

GPL notice included in KISS DP-508 Media Player

[Bowie J. Poag]

In accordance with the GPL, the source for KISS DP-508 is available upon
request, for a nominal fee to cover media and shipping costs.*

.

.

.

* = The source code will be provided to you as a series of large, neon-lit
marquee letters shipped individually in wooden packing crates. Currently,
the world's supply of neon gas limits our ability to ship large quantities
of source code. The current expected wait time is 32 years, plus or minus
6 months, depending upon the condition of labor relations in countries with
substantial noble gas exports.

For more information, please inject crystal meth directly into your eyeballs,
and light yourself on fire while listening to the following song:

http://www.ibiblio.org/propaganda/pogo/easteregg.m p3 [ibiblio.org]


Thats the version of the GPL I prefer, personally.

Gene Simmons and Peter Criss aren't...

[Fortunato_NC]

...going to get away with this.

There is no way the KISS Army can withstand the awesome onslaught of the GNU Hurd! RSS will lead the charge against the interlopers, with the battle cry "They're properly called GNU/Linux Systems!" ringing over the Plains...

The bastards

[An Anonymous Hero]

We have one more pattern in our parser, which was commited on 2003 July 20, in effect of supporting a new subtitle format, called "ASS". Kiss Tech's files are missing this one, so they must have lifted our code before that date.

So, not only they don't comply, they don't even kiss ass. Pretty damning if you ask me!

Re:Gene Simmons and Peter Criss aren't...

[evil_one]

Sadly, dirty hippies with bad breath can't stand up to the teradactyl fighting power that is KISS. They have guitars, man. They're great, they saved Santa, man! (See The Family Guy episode 203 [familyguyvideo.com].)

Couldn't resist...

[MImeKillEr]

"Gene Simmons unavailable for comment."

Re:I own one, it rocks.

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Sounds like they need to upgrade to the latest version of mplayer!

Re:A taste of their own medicine

[Anonymous Coward]

Who's law?

Ah! A pertinent question! I'm inclined to believe Law is Justice's husband. Or retarded cousin.

In compliance with RMS?

[CaptKilljoy]

Isn't RMS's stated goal to destroy copyright altogether? Logically, at that point anyone will be able to use or "steal" code in any way they want because there will be no way to enforce the author's wishes. Maybe KISS Technologies is just ahead of the game. ;)

(I'm half serious here; what is supposed to happen after copyright no longer exists?)