"Privacy and Network Access Policy" window is needlessly confusing

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

vlc 2.0.5-1, Ubuntu Ringtail

1. Launch VLC for the first time (for example, in a guest session).

What happens: A "Privacy and Network Access Policy" window appears, containing this text from <http://www.videolan.org/developers/vlc/modules/gui/qt4/dialogs/firstrun.cpp>:
-----------
VLC media player does *not* send or collect any information, even anonymously, about your usage.

However, it can connect to the Internet in order to display *medias information* .

VideoLAN (the authors) requires you to express your consent before allowing this software to access the Internet.

According to your choices, please check or uncheck the following options:

Network Access Policy
[/] Allow downloading media information

                                          ( Save and Continue )
-----------

What's wrong here:

a. "VLC media player does not" is either incorrect grammar ("The VLC media player does not") or, more likely, incorrect capitalization ("VLC Media Player does not").

b. Most of the window is in English, but "medias" is not, and "media" is used instead in the checkbox.

c. There's no explanation of what either "medias information" *or* "media information" is. This mystery prompted a posting on the VideoLAN forums, which explains that it's cover art and track lists. <http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=107095>

d. There's a stray space between "medias information" and the following period. This is because the text "or to check for available updates" is inserted into the sentence using an #ifdef UPDATE_CHECK with spaces misallocated between the strings. And using an #ifdef also makes the sentence difficult to translate.

e. "It isn't clear whether "(the authors)" refers to the authors of VLC, the authors of the media, or the authors of the media information.

f. "requires you express your consent" is the dialog talking about what the dialog is asking instead of just asking it.

g. "According to your choices, please check or uncheck the following options" is filler text.

h. Even if it wasn't filler text, it refers to "options" when there is only one option, because the second is hidden by another #ifdef.

i. The dialog contains two unnecessary group boxes, with the result that the string "Network Access Policy" appears *three* times in the window.

j. "Save" is needlesly technical here.

I suggest replacing all this text with:
------------
Welcome. How should VLC access the Internet when you're using it?

(*) Check for cover art, track lists, and software updates
( ) Check for cover art and track lists
( ) Check for software updates
( ) Don't access the Internet at all, thanks

                                          ( Exit ) ( Continue )
------------

The first and third radio buttons can be omitted when UPDATE_CHECK is false.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package vlc - 2.1.1-1

---------------
vlc (2.1.1-1) unstable; urgency=low

  * New upstream release.
  * Drop altivec patch (fixed upstream).
  * Remove obsolete conffiles (Closes: #703750).

 -- Benjamin Drung <email address hidden> Mon, 18 Nov 2013 21:46:53 +0100