[lug] redhat beta musings

[Alan Robertson]

Kevin Fenzi wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> 
>>>>>>"j" == j davis <davis_compz at hotmail.com> writes:
>>>>>>
> 
> j> quick dumb question. no mp3 support? wha..? This is just for beta
> j> right?
> 
> nope. No mp3 support will ship with redhat from now on. I am sure
> debian and SuSe and the others will follow suit. 
> 
> The people who hold the patent for mp3 have decided to start charging
> about 75 cents per decoder. This makes it non free software...

As far as I knew, the patents only covered the encoders.  I've never heard 
about patents covering the decoders...  I see the reference to slashdot.

The mp3 page says that 0.75 covers patents and software  - or just patents. 
  It was my understanding that players don't violate the patents.

	-- Alan Robertson
	   alanr at unix.sh