"Licensed" codecs

[Gordon Messmer]

Mark A. Hoover wrote:
>>
>>The problem is not that Red Hat would have to provide them for free.
>>The problem is that the applications you mention are all licensed under
>>the GPL, and that license is fairly stubbornly opposed to any additional
>>restrictions beyond those it describes.
> 
> 
> I'll give you this one, only if you can tell me what would prevent 
> something like mPlayer being released GPL, and the codec plugin from being 
> released as a seperate binary only package?

The availability of a codec that is not GPL licensed?  Someone could 
write a binary only codec and acquire the needed patent license.  No 
suitable codec exists, though, and it would take a great deal of effort 
to write one, since you couldn't use any of the existing GPL licensed code.