Packaging win32 codecs

I have just packaged up the essential win32 codecs from mplayer into an RPM. Unfortunately, I cannot distribute it. While the codecs are freely available from their publishers, the redistribution of these codecs is against the EULA(s) of the companies that hold the copyrights to them.

So I can include the codecs on the Fedora install discs I am building for my own use, but I can’t give them out (at least I think I am within my rights to
do this).

However, what I can do, is make my RPM SPEC file available to download, and explain how to build your own RPM for the codecs.

First, grab the Fedora RPM Build tools:

# yum install fedora-rpmdevtools

Now create an RPM build tree:

# fedora-buildrpmtree

Download the essential codecs from:

http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html.

Place this file in the SOURCES directory in your build tree (~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/).

Grab my SPEC file from here, and place it in the SPECS directory in your build tree (~/rpmbuild/SPECS).

As root build the rpm package:

# rpmbuild -bb ~your_username/rpmbuild/SPECS/mplayer-codecs-essential-0.1.20060501.i386.spec

You fresh built rpm should be in ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/

I know there are already some third party repos with these codecs packaged up. I built my own for a couple of reasons:

1. Existing packages tend to have a dependency on mplayer. Although mplayerhq is the source of this package, they work equally well with xine-lib. Though useless without a player, these codecs technially have no dependencies.
2. The dependencies that are set, point to other packages in the same repo which tends to conflict with extras and livna, the repos I am chosing to use.