Ubuntu
kaffeine package

Legal installation of Codecs

Asked by olneyville

The help manual states that:
In some countries, the use of certain codecs may be prohibited by law. You should verify that you are permitted to use them before installing them.

How do I find out which codecs can be legally installed in the UK?

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Gord Allott
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Best Gord Allott (gordallott) said : 		#1

Most codecs can be installed in the uk thanks to our lack of support of software patants (the same in any EU country) which means that its perfectly legal to install any video codec (installing any codec in the ubuntu repo's should be 100% legal for example).
it is however a grey area regarding software like libdvdcss (which 'cracks' the copyright protection on dvds so that you can watch dvd's without having the special key to play them which is needed on ubuntu because no dvd supplier provides software to do this for us) which because our uk goverment has laws against copyright curcumvention (thats getting around the copyright protection even if you own the dvd/cd or whatever) which means that it may not technically be legal to watch dvd's on ubuntu even if you legally own the dvd's and a dvd player.

You can do as most people do with this rather rediculous situation and just ignore it though, the choice is yours.

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douglas_smith (hamsterzombie-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#2

Searched and searched for a list of legal countries.

Given the politics of being allowed to enjoy your legally obtained content/fair use, my money says proprietary codecs will not be legal in the UK.
Yet another reason to vote out all incumbents during election cycles.
=)

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douglas_smith (hamsterzombie-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#3

Circumvention is the issue, but what happens if you were to convert a closed format to an open one?
Circular logic at it's finest.
Still sticking to my vote out the incumbent strategy.

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olneyville (paul-plcolegrove) said : 		#4

Thanks Gord Allott, that solved my question.

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mohanan (mohananpz) said : 		#5

which codecs hould be installed to play multimedia in ubuntu 8.04

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mohanan (mohananpz) said : 		#6

which codecs hould be installed to play multimedia in ubuntu 8.04