Quoting Peter Flodin <pflodin@gmail.com>:
On 14/09/05, Allen <gorebofh@comcast.net> wrote:
RedHat asked you to confirm that and I don't see MP3s in Fedora today. The fact remains, DEBIAN IS NOT A BUSINESS. Novell, is.
Ok, while MP3 support has hijacked this thread, lets just summarise, so that we can get to a definite answer, stick that on the FAQ, so that when this comes up again, we can say go and look at the FAQ. Novell is a business, yes. Debian is not a business: yes. Redhat is a business: yes Debian has MP3: irrelevant Fedora doesn't have MP3: irrelevant.
What does matter is whether Thomson does or does not control and license a patent for MP3 decoders.
Let's say that Thomson only had a patent for encoders. It would be in their interest to confuse the issue and ask for MP3 licensing for all devices.
Alejandro has made a statement that his belief is that decoders do not require a license.
Alejandro, what you are saying is against common understanding of MP3 licensing, can you please find some supporting documents or discussion elsewhere, and not just a link to the large number of patents controlled by Thomson.
Until Alejandro has done that, move along, there is nothing to see here......
Peter 'Pflodo' Flodin
I've seen this debate go back and forth now (almost) since the existance of this mailing list. It's getting old in a hurry - the community and Novell BOTH ought to determine what the solution is, and choose it. Arguing over something that essentially is out of our control isn't getting us anywhere - instead, it has fragmented us into two different camps. Why is the inclusion of mp3 support in other distros irrelevant? Out of the box mp3 support is something we should try to include, if we say that we want to gain users and mindshare, is it not? Won't Joe User want mp3 support out of the box, and not have go to find it via forums and mailing list archives? (And none of that elitist "Well, if they can't figure it out, tough sh!t. Linux isn't for idiots" - I came across that in a discussion with someone and I cringed. ) The goal is to give the user an OS that is as painless to operate as possible, right? -Chris