[gst-devel] Re: Helix Player virtual team meeting

[Thomas Vander Stichele]

> Well, I think that there is a legitimate need to legally /read/ open
> source data, and Real does seem to be attempting to offer that. 

The offer is two-fold and combined.  The offer is "you can legally read
realmedia *if* you use and work with the Helix framework."  Which makes
complete sense from Real's standpoint, and much kudos to the people from
Real posting here to make that clear from the start.

This is also one of the things it needs to be evaluated on.  If as you
said before GStreamer and Helix are to be judged on technical merits
(which I agree with, for the most part, though I think licensing is
important too), then Helix shouldn't get any bonus points for being "the
only option to be able to legally read realmedia files". IE, Helix
should be judged on technical merit alone.

What will we do if Apple makes the same offer tomorrow for Quicktime ?

(I'm trying to form my opinion as I go with my several hats, as you
might notice, trying to be fair on both sides.)

Thomas