On 7/20/07, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
On 7/20/07, Stephen Bain stephen.bain@gmail.com wrote:
I'm 100% in support of "pushing unencumbered formats", but not at the expense of usability for the majority of users.
Then I really have to ask, what are you doing on the board of one of the largest free content organisations around? Your goal should be to do everything possible to make free content usable for the majority of users.
That's exactly the point.
I'm presuming you have replied like this because you are still distinguishing content from file format.
But does one really have the freedom to use a work, to make and redistribute copies, to make changes and improvements, and to distribute derivative works, if that work is delivered in a proprietary file format?
No, free licences do not go as far as requiring distribution of content licensed under them in free formats. But the GFDL requires transparent copies to be available when opaque copies are distributed for a reason: to ensure that consumers of free content really do have those freedoms.
If we are looking at adding extra video functionality, in order to increase the usability of libre video, it ought to be by way of making free file formats more usable.