[wellylug] Presentation videos now available

JP jumbophut at yahoo.co.in
Wed Mar 10 09:37:37 NZDT 2004


 --- Jamie Baddeley wrote: 

> - First of all we need to recognise that the time
> and effort that R2
> provide is for free.
> 
Absolutely.  It is very kind of R2 and Jeremy to make
the video available on-line in any form.  

> - The last thing I think we want to have happen is
> people stop coming to
> a LUG meeting, because they can watch it online
> instead. Catching up
> each other in meatspace instead of cyberspace has
> it's value.
> 
That might be true.  I certainly wouldn't stop going
to meetings just because vids were available though. 
Sometimes I have prior commitments that I can't get
out of (e.g. child care), and that's where I would
find videos useful.

> - If you can't make it go, ask for help. I can watch
> it here. All you
> need is mplayer.
> 

And using mplayer is just fine if you are comfortable
with its legal status.  I'm not, because I haven't
been able to find a clear statement that it is legal. 
If you have something authoritative to the contrary,
please let me know.  My understanding was that the
site is still based in Hungary because making all the
Windows codecs available for download would break all
sorts of laws in most developed countries.  A bunch of
free codecs have now been written, but to my
knowledge, asx formats are still using proprietory
ones.

Maybe I'm a luddite, but although I would prefer
software/music/movie companies to be cool about
letting people use their products in a flexible
manner, I am not going to break the law if they don't.
 

Interesting story here (off-topic rant) -- in NZ, not
only is it illegal to download most MP3s without
paying the copyright holder, it is also illegal to
even rip your own CDs to your PC, for your own use.  I
wrote to a bunch of record companies asking for
permission to do the latter, making it clear I would
not be sharing the files; _one_ company wrote back and
said okay.  The rest either said no, or didn't bother
to reply.  As a result, I don't have any mp3s on my
PCs at home or at work.  Dumb law though, and I tell
people at every opportunity, especially musos.

Okay, off-topic rant finished.

Incidentally, my offer to capture the file as an avi
still stands.  Someone would have to offer to host it
though if it was going to be made available on-line. 
Otherwise, the earlier suggestion of sneaker-net could
be a good one (or just bring a CD to the next meeting
and people can burn a copy there).

Cheers
Tony

________________________________________________________________________
Yahoo! India Insurance Special: Be informed on the best policies, services, tools and more. 
Go to: http://in.insurance.yahoo.com/licspecial/index.html




More information about the wellylug mailing list