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