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:
> > http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/software.html
> >   50,000$ one time up front fee, and they can solve the issue of an
> > Open Source MP3 player.  For everyone.
>   Oh, please.  Do you really think Thomson is going to agree to
> license for perpetual unlimited distribution to other parties?  If
> they did, then *everyone else* could use the same license, and their
> *entire revenue stream* from MP3 would evaporate.  Don't be stupid; it
> doesn't become you.

  I'm telling you that yes, they do license it in this manner,
depending on the primary purpose of the applications.  As in, if it's
an end use application, or built into something else.

  An end use application would be something along the lines of a
simple MP3 player.  Note the distinct lack of a lump-sum payment for
an MP3 *encoder* which maddog pointed out earlier.  That's covered
under the codec section.

> > Ever wonder how Windows can decode MP3s within ANY Windows
> > application?
>   Ever notice that Windows costs $200 a pop?

  But the only reason why they're looking at such a large judgment is
because Lucent is basically saying that since they didn't pay up, they
need to pay the max per-seat cost.

  If lucent's claim holds up in court, which it has for this 'first
round', expect to see much running like hell away from MP3.
Basically, after a little research, they have a patent covering OTHER
aspects of MP3, such as the use of MPEG framing, which I believe is
the one that the court ruled in their favor on today.

  It's friggen insane that they're choosing to enforce the patent NOW,
after so many years.

-- 
-- Thomas