ARTICLE - ESR gives up on Fedora

[Ben Scott]

On 2/22/07, Thomas Charron <twaffle at gmail.com> wrote:
>   And be able to do some core desktop features.  Like say..  Play MP3
> files..  :-D

  In order for Red Hat (or the "Fedora Project"; I'm not sure about
legal status there) to include MP3 support in their distribution, they
would have to *buy* a license from Thomson Consumer Electronics.  I
think it's a per-unit thing, too.  How do you establish per-unit
counts of a free distro?  So, legally, they cannot ship MP3 support.

    There is nothing Red Hat can do about this.  What you and I can do
and/or get away with in our home is one thing.  Red Hat is a big
company enough company that they are a target.  They cannot break the
law just because they feel like it, or they'll be sued to smithereens.

-- Ben