There may well patents on the technology, but that doesn't mean that a libre software decoder is impossible, just more difficult. I think patents on some parts of MLP were applied for, but I don't know if they were granted yet. Patents within standards can be licenced on a royalty-free basis - it's at the discretion of the patent holder, as I understand it. Meridian is mostly a hardware company, but they do sell MLP software encoders for Windows, so there is the potential for competition from a libre software tool. However, Meridian may be interested in seeing their format adopted as widely as possible, especially since DVD-A is not yet a mainstream format. I suggest you read up on MLP using these white papers by Bob Stuart, if you haven't already: http://www.meridian-audio.com/lib_pap.htm then make an enquiry to Meridian about Linux encoder/player support, open standards etc etc. I'd be very interested to hear the response, and I'm sure others would be too. Cheers Daniel