[linux-audio-user] ogg for Windows made really easy

Cesare Marilungo cesare at poeticstudios.com
Sun Jan 15 18:27:15 EST 2006


Lee Revell wrote:

>On Sun, 2006-01-15 at 23:33 +0100, Cesare Marilungo wrote:
>  
>
>>Maybe it is just because a distro that is shipped in large quantities 
>>should otherwise pay royalties?
>>
>>    
>>
>
>They don't have to ship it, they just have to set up their installer so
>it goes on the Net and downloads the MP3 packages from a server in a non
>software patent country.
>
>For example (not to beat a dead horse) the distros can't ship the Nvidia
>binary driver, as this would violate the GPL (GPL code cannot be linked
>with proprietary code) but some have a package where if you "apt-get
>install" it, it will go and grab the driver from nvidia's site, compile
>the wrapper and link it to the kernel you are running.  It's still a GPL
>violation, but the individual user is violating the GPL, not the distro.
>
>Lee
>
>
>
>  
>
Yes, but this explains why mp3 doesn't work out of the box in gnu/Linux.

What I'm trying to say is that the assumption that you won't get caught 
doesn't mean it's legal.

There are some distros (for example yoper, or gamesknoppix) that indeed 
ship with the nvidia binary.

I think we should be careful when we say that mp3 is not a proprietary 
codec.

Meanwhile, I found this link I've bookmarked some weeks ago:

http://www.mondodesigno.com/music/ogg.html

Read the paragraph: "What's wrong with mp3?"

c.
www.cesaremarilungo.com





More information about the Linux-audio-user mailing list