ARTICLE - ESR gives up on Fedora

[Thomas Charron]

On 2/22/07, Ben Scott <dragonhawk at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.

http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/software.html

>     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.

  50,000$ one time up front fee, and they can solve the issue of an
Open Source MP3 player.  For everyone.

  Hell, RedHat themselves could simply allow the use of their
purchased license to other applications by simply purchasing a 'right'
to the software, as the royalties specifically mentions it can cover
third party applications written for the licensee.

  Ever wonder how Windows can decode MP3s within ANY Windows
application?  They have a license for their libraries to decode the
MP3 audio via their codec.  Let me reiterate, ANY applications can
utilize this on Windows.

There are solutions.

-- 
-- Thomas