Why is it that slackware still offers mp3 support. Aren't they comercial too? And how does a volenteer distro like debian fit into all of this? Greg On Tue, Oct 08, 2002 at 01:10:08AM +0800, Kerry Hoath wrote: > Let me clarify the mp3 issue. > FHG has patents on mp3 technology as to Thompson multimedia so do they. > They demand $25US for an _encoder_ license per encoder. > This is why projects such as lame state for educational use only. > > Now FHG have changed the rules. > For all decoders except those for non-comercial use; they want 75 cents per decoder. > > Redhat is a comercial concern. They sell and give away t heir software. > How are they to tell who uses the decoders for mp3 for > comercial use or non-comercial use? > If people use mpg123 for comercial use they violate the Thompson patent. > From a legal perspective Redhat is in a bind. > They can't uphold the patent and adhear to the gpl if they include mp3 decoders > in the distribution. It is safest for them to > drop mp3 support. > You might not like it; you might not aprove of it but you > can allways go to rpmfind.net and get an mpg123 rpm > or build your own binaries from source. > > You may object to the removal of lilo in the next release of Redhat but obviously > grub has proven stable enough through the 7.x releases of > Redhat. > Grub understands file systems; it can handle kernle images moving > and it can decompress on the fly. Lilo can not do any of this; > encoding the kernel location ina block list format t hat gets trashed if you > move any image around. > I would say with all the rh testing; we will see grub 1.0 sooner rather > than later. > > Regards, Kerry.
