Re: Codeina and how to proceed

[Alexandre Oliva <aoliva redhat com>]

On Mar 17, 2008, "Luis Villa" <luis tieguy org> wrote:

> Either say the mp3 stuff is non-free

But is it?  Patents don't make Software non-Free, it's the use of the
power granted by a patent to stop people from enjoying the freedoms to
run, study, modify or distribute the software that makes the Software
non-Free.

Honest question: has anyone who actually ran or distributed mp3
decoders implemented in (otherwise-)Free Software ever been stopped
from doing so in countries where the patent encumbrances of mp3 apply?
Or have most just been scared of even trying?

-- 
Alexandre Oliva         http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/
FSF Latin America Board Member         http://www.fsfla.org/
Red Hat Compiler Engineer   aoliva {redhat com, gcc.gnu.org}
Free Software Evangelist  oliva {lsd ic unicamp br, gnu.org}