Integrate libdvdnav into Solaris [PSARC/2008/225 FastTrack timeout 04/03/2008]

[Brian Cameron]

Dan:

> Yes. The Ogle player is planned for implementation as part of Indiana by 
> Dermot McCluskey.  He doesn't currently have a target integration, but 
> supports our integration of this now. 

The Ogle player is licensed under the GPL.  This means that you cannot
link any any non-free code.  Since DVD's (even unencrypted ones) are
encoded in MPEG2 formats, you cannot distribute Ogle with MPEG2 support
even if you have a license to distribute MPEG2.  The Ogle player would
require a GPL exception to allow distributing it with support for MPEG2
codecs.

Is your plan to only support unencrypted DVD's that are encoded in free
video/audio media formats, such as theora?  I don't think any such DVD's
exist, unless you make them yourself.  It seems we should be integrating
a DVD player that can be distributed without violating GPL.

Further, I notice in your OSR (8050) that you didn't highlight any
patent issues in the Engineering section, question #9.  Isn't it fairly
well known that DVD technologies are heavily encumbered.  I would
think we should be highlighting that a careful look at patents is
required in a case like this.  No?

Brian