mp3 help...

[Ricky Boone]

> Sigh.  "Everyone else does it" is not a valid legal defense.

That's not what I meant.  I wasn't meaning that since everyone else has
support that Fedora should also based completely on that fact.  My point
was that there are other distro's that -are- selling their products with
MP3 support, yet Fedora does not, and it's freely available... not sold.

> If you use
> the things in the MP3 patent for commercial use, you are required to pay
> royalties.  The GPL doesn't allow restrictions on use via patents.  All
> "GPL" MP3 software is not GPL compatible.

But Fedora is not a commercial product... it isn't "revenue-generating",
as the company holding these patents likes to put it.  Why should they
expect for a company, or developer, to pay royalty licensing fees for a
product that isn't sold?

I'm sorry, let's just drop this, I don't mean to drag this into the ground
any further, it's just a problem that seems to cause people to
consistantly ask for help on.  Perhaps there should be a notice on the
Fedora site about this, howtos or links to howtos and rpms, etc... (that
is if there isn't one already...)