Re: [gNewSense-users] Free mp3 enconder

[Alexandre Oliva]

On Jun 15, 2008, "Eric Padman" <address@hidden> wrote:

> Fluendo (the company behind gstreamer) has paid a fee to license the
> MP3 patents for use with gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3. It is released
> under a MIT license but it is not GPL compatible because of the patent
> licensing.

It's not even Free Software, because of the patent licensing.
Accepting such a license puts you in a position in which, if you enjoy
your freedoms, you're breaking an agreement you accepted.  If you're
not going to abide by the agreement, it would have been more ethical
to not accept it in the first place.

If you obtain a decoder or encoder from another source that hasn't
given in to the patent holders and fed the monster, then it's Free
Software, at least until the patent holders obtain a court order that
prohibits you from enjoying your freedoms.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva         http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/
Free Software Evangelist  address@hidden, gnu.org}
FSFLA Board Member       ¡Sé Libre! => http://www.fsfla.org/
Red Hat Compiler Engineer   address@hidden, gcc.gnu.org}