Further, since the patent holders of mp3 state on their web page that you DO NOT NEED A LICENSE for home use I would like Novell to make available repositories that are FREE but never included in their boxed sets which overcome and reverse all crippling.
Reference: http://www.mp3licensing.com/help/index.html
QUOTE: " However, no license is needed for private, non-commercial activities (e.g., home-entertainment, receiving broadcasts and creating a personal music library), not generating revenue or other consideration of any kind or for entities with associated annual gross revenue less than US$ 100 000.00.
First ... Try reading and understanding the whole page.
The heading of your quoted part is: "4) Do I need a license to stream mp3, mp3PRO or mp3surround encoded content over the Internet?"
So it is just about _content_ not about _software_.
The page does clarify MP3 decoding software only in point (1): 1) Do you license mp3, mp3PRO and mp3surround software to end users? No. We license mp3/mp3PRO software and patents to developers and manufacturers of software applications and hardware devices.
So there is need for a license for _all_ mp3 software under conditions not specified on this page.
And its clarified on http://www.mp3licensing.com/help/developers.html: I want to support mp3, mp3PRO or mp3surround in my products. Do I need a license? Yes. [....] What does it cost? A per unit royalty is taken on mp3/mp3PRO products and applications, such as ripping software, jukebox applications, mp3/mp3PRO-enabled CD/DVD players and portable mp3/mp3PRO players. Read "per unit royalty". And that we make openSUSE available as download makes this not easier. In the end ... such things need to be clarified and cross checked by lawyers, and ours did check it, rest assured of that. Ciao, Marcus (not a lawyer, not qualified to give legal advice, not speaking for Novell, only for himself) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org