[jmarshall]

Note that for any linux (or win32) build of XBMC is freely distributable in executable form as well (as long as you obey the license.)

Only the xbox build is subject to the questionable legality, due to the fact that it requires the XDK to build.

[Gamester17]

Well there are some gray areas on Win32 and Linux as well when it comes to audio/video codecs, but that is no different from MPlayer, Xine or VLC which are are included in Linux distrobutions.

Copyright

XBMC provides, for audio and video codecs which are not natively supported, a DLL loader forked from the "avifile" open source project which can load third-party made DLLs to decode unsupported formats. Where the user owns a licensed copy of the DLL, this is potentially legal. However, some third-party XBMC builds incorporate all available third-party DLLs that XBMC can support and the redistribution of these without a licence is copyright infringement.


Patents

For most popular video and audio codecs, XBMC includes native support through the libavcodec library from the FFmpeg project. Since this code is released under a free and open source license, it is legally redistributable. However, some of these compression methods, such as the popular MP3 format, are covered by patents in many countries. Absent a licence, this would make it illegal to redistribute versions of XBMC including support for these patented formats. This is a problem common among many open source multimedia projects/applications.


Other

XBMC also includes support for playing back DVD-Video movies encrypted using the CSS (Content Scramble System) encryption. The distribution of executable versions of XBMC containing this code is likely to fall afoul of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the U.S. and the EU Copyright Directive in the European Union member countries which have so far incorporated it into national law.

[Iceman-UK]

Thanks alot for your replies guys, I will read those links and Gamesters reply thoroughly so I can deliver confident replies to anyone who asks me about this issue.

[Gamester17]

Did you manage to get and photos or videos from you demo:ing XBMC at the LUGRadioLive exhibition?

[Iceman-UK]

Did you manage to get and photos or videos from you demo:ing XBMC at the LUGRadioLive exhibition?

Yes, my friend took some photos: http://flickr.com/photos/theloudmouthman/page3/

You can see me in photo DSC00031 and several around that one.

[NineT9mustang]

ew what a gay skin your showing! I hope your atleast showing it in HD!

[Iceman-UK]

ew what a gay skin your showing! I hope your atleast showing it in HD!

If it wasn't for your sig Mustang I would not have spotted the joke!

The Vision Beta skin wowed a lot of people. I had that particular skin in tandem with a May 2007 build and wide icons and it wowed everyone. Sadly, my hi-def cable didn't arrive in time for the show. It is an RGB Scart connection.

[NineT9mustang]

lol cool to see the skin was enjoyed by people! I smiled when I saw Vision in the TV of your screenshots! I feel like im famous! Except without the cocaine

Good to hear your demo went good! Pics were awesome