[ILUG] MPlayer

[Sean O Sullivan]

I'm unsure if this is old news ... but I haven't seen it reported 
anywhere ...

just went to mplayer website there ... mplayer has been shut down due to 
patent infringements ...
from the site :

* This site has been shut down because of numerous patent violations in 
MPlayer. The other free software multimedia players are next. *

The European commission has just passed its directive on software 
patents, violating democratic rules and procedures to the sole benefit 
of big non-European corporation and Ireland and to the detriment of 
small and medium sized businesses (which comprise 99% of the European 
software industry) and free software.

The European parliament will now be taking the last stand against 
software patents in a voting for which an absolute majority is needed. 
Such a majority is hard to come by in a parliament with a low attendance 
level.



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This really is a low day ... mplayer is one of the big linux media 
players, and if they're shut down ... it's a huge knock to linux on the 
desktop & general linux with media stuffs.

Regards,

Sean