[Commons-l] We should permit Flash video playback

[Erik Moeller]

On 7/20/07, Pedro Sanchez <pdsanchez at gmail.com> wrote:
> Uh, using as much "fair use" images is highly desirable. Even for
> living people where we could get free replacements... since it's
> easier, and it will immediately improve the experience of our users.

It's a balance between attitudes such as yours and those of people on
the opposite end who wish for us to only have free content & free
codecs. We should steer clear from dogma and ask ourselves: How do we
best meet our goals of building a freely usable encyclopedia?

The use of "phantom images" which encourage upload of freely licensed
photographs of celebrities anecdotally seems to have encouraged the
creation of free content that would otherwise not have been produced
(I'd love to see hard numbers on that). But what do we truly gain if a
user who has no experience installing software (or no permission to do
so on their system) simply cannot play video or audio on our websites?
Arguably, very little: Their motivation to understand the issue of
patents in video codecs is unlikely to be positively affected by their
inability to play videos on Wiki[mp]edia.

> The point is, using flash video akin to using mp3 for sound (since it
> actually uses mp3 for audio). So, before pushing for flash, push for
> mp3 first.

In both cases, if we can get a non-aggression agreement from the known
patent holders I'd be in favor of transparent transcoding of uploaded
files to multiple codecs.



-- 
Toward Peace, Love & Progress:
Erik

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