Am Sonntag, 5. März 2006 13:39 schrieb Daniel Bauer:
Am Sonntag, 5. März 2006 12:41 schrieb David Wright:
For the same reason as Windows. Microsoft don't include support for playing DVD's either. There are licensing and legal issues to this. Windows would be even more expensive than it already is if it included DVD support and the same would apply to SUSE. The "free" DVD libraries are illegal to install and use in many countries, therefore Novell/openSUSE would get into a lot of hot water, or they'd need to probably double the price to include a "legal" solution from the likes of Cyberlink.
As much as I know it isn't illegal in *all* countries. Wouldn't it be possible to have a site and make Yast-installable rpm's available there? Of course, SUSE or Novell couldn do that, but the community could, couldn't it?
Not all, but many, but in the ones where Novell are based (US (parent company) and Germany (SUSE HQ) for example) it is illegal... Hollywood won't provide an opensource player to watch DVD's at home under Linux, but they rattle their sabres at solutions which allow you to view DVD's which aren't approved by them...
I am no lawyer, so I could be wrong, but for many people new to Linux who don't care too much about legal issues (but are afraid of self compiling and installing) something like this would be of great service, I guess.
Daniel
Waxborg includes a script for automating the install of the DVD libraries and Mplayer for example. Dave -- "I got to go figure," the tenant said. "We all got to figure. There's some way to stop this. It's not like lightning or earthquakes. We've got a bad thing made by men, and by God that's something we can change." - The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck