[lug] redhat beta musings

[Peter Hutnick]

> 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.

What do you base this statement on?  Fraunhofer has historically only
pursued redress of patent violations by encoder
vendors/authors/distributors, but the patent certainly apply to players as
well to my reading
(http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:ALmB5xvpHasC:www.mp3-tech.org/docs/5579430.pdf+mp3+patent&hl=en&ie=UTF-8).

They used to have a blanket grant of gratis license to "free" players. 
This is complicated, since one of the freedoms of GPL software is that you
MAY sell it.  Anyway, the situation went from shaky to downright
problematic and RH has just opted out of the whole mess.

Go Vorbis.

-Peter