ARTICLE - ESR gives up on Fedora

[Jon 'maddog' Hall]

On Thu, 2007-02-22 at 17:21 -0500, Ben Scott 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.
> 
>     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
Speaking of MP3s and "being sued to smithereens".

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6161480.html?tag=nl.e589

And it could not have happened to nicer people.......

maddog