[Linux-bruxelles] Check this out! - The future's bright, the future's ogg

[Eric Gianquinto]

The future's bright, the future's ogg

RedHat has removed all software that contains an MP3 decoder from their
pre-release distributions in response to a report in their Bugzilla that
the MP3 decoder is also patented and usable only on a for-fee basis.
Thompson Multimedia's licensing for MP3 states that royalties of at
least $0.75 per unit must be paid, although this seems to have been the
situation since May 2001. Encoders have even steeper rates: $5 per unit
(or $2.50 for just a license to use the patent).

Xiph.org's founder Emmett Plant has written an open letter thanking them
for highlighting the proprietary nature of MP3, and encouraging people
to look at free alternatives such as Ogg Vorbis. Discussion is
commencing on debian-legal as to how and if Debian should respond to the
situation.

See this link ...

http://www.debianplanet.org/node.php?id=786

-- 

PGP public key on public key servers
http://www.pgpi.org/services/keys/keyservers/
PGP-fingerprint B82A 5A2C 9104 A8FE A08D  2B5F E4E2 318E AE46 7D81