On Mon, May 02, 2005 at 02:20:57PM +0100, Stephen Boddy wrote:
On Monday 02 May 2005 12:25, Carlos E. R. wrote:
Do I understand correctly that it is not legal in the US for SuSE users to listen to mp3, but it is for european users?
Do you have more info on this (a link for further reading, perhaps)? I think SuSE should have told us Europeans buyers why mp3 did not work any longer, and how we could solve it. A product that sells worldwide should give this kind of info in an easy to find place (like the printed book). Multimedia is announced in the box.
It's because the process of encoding and decoding mp3's are covered by software patents. In the US these are enforcable, whilst they are not (theoretically) in the EU.
This is correct. People use MP3s all the time and most probably don't realise how strict the thing is. It's not free softyware, and in fact, you're not even allowed to use it unless it's for research purposes only. I research my CD collection ;) Now, as it has been said SUSE 9.3 has a fix to allow MP3 playback and I think they should at least be given some credit for this as RedHat has had no MP3 support for a long time, and they don't give you an update which allows you to use MP3s again, you have to install everything by hand in redhat and generally take a lot of time. MP3 is very strict and Novell is just trying to not be lawyer protected over this. Or at least that is my guess. You have to remember, Novell is a big company with money, on the other hand, freely downloaded Linux distros, have no worries, they aren't companys and don't have to obide by the same rules so to speak. Now me, I don't have a problem, SUSE has a fix to use the MP3s again, and either way, I have my CDs, (15 GBs worth in MP3 format) that I re-did in OGG so that I could listen on any platform. I'm glad SUSE fixed this though because I've always loved the fact that whenh a RedHat user tries SUSE for the first time they always get back to me like "DUDE YOU CAN PLAY MP3S WITHOUT INSTALLING SOMETHING@!" That is great. The two OSs for Linux I use the most are SUSE and Slackware (Pat is a good guy and a buddy of mine and I think he does do good work, and h ell, SUSE sold Slackware for a while.) I do have to use XP because of the free printer my laptop came with not being good with Linux, and because well, Doom3, I can't get it working in Linux as of yet and I need at least one partition XP for college.
It could well be mentioned on the Novell/SuSE website, but since the buyout Novell have turned that into an obtuse exercise into frustration. A few of the reviews have highlighted this issue and the solution. Of course there is nothing to stop a US citizen downloading the additional packages, but they take on the legal responsibility themselves.
Yea it's funny you could have to go to court for making MP3s lol. It's stupid, the guy who created MP3 should release it free. If I had a lot of money, or my own company with lots of cash, I'd buy him out and buy the rights to it, and release it free. Then I'd buy out SCO, and all the rights to Unix they actually own, and then I'd buy whatever rights to Unix Novell still owns, and then I'd buy whatever the open group has on Unix, and I would own Unix and everything about Unix, and then, I'd give it to Novell, IBM, and of course me, and after a year, (After Novell, IBM and SUSE have enough of a work up on it) I'd release it GPL. Ahhh dreaming. I've always wanted my own version of Unix. And the people who used Unix and used it from SCO, which I'd bought the rights of, I'd tell them they all had to switch to a SUSE and Netware solution because Unix would no longer be supported. Buahahaha. I'd make my own version of Unix, then give it away. Novell would be first because I love them, and thye could maybe fix it up, they owned it after AT&T so they know how to work with it, and then of course IBM, so no more lawsuit from the idiots at SCO. I'd give Novell and IBM a head start though on working with Unix, and after a while I'd give it to Berkeley where it belongs and then the rest of the world. That should screw with stuff and start a revolution. ;) -Allen.
Steve Boddy
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