Re: Intellectual Property Plugins and GNOME

[Chris Ball <cjb mrao cam ac uk>]

>> On Thu, 15 Jun 2006, Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM> said:

   > Also, it seems supporting popular IP multimedia codecs would likely
   > make free software more popular rather than less.  Since the
   > license must be renewed each year, such an arrangement could be
   > terminated in the future if people found the arrangement didn't
   > work well.

"Those who would give up freedom to purchase a little temporary
popularity deserve neither."

I think that Sriram's right about talking to the distributions.  
You'll find that most (Fedora, etc) have already committed to not ship
patent-encumbered codecs regardless of whether a license is available,
though.  See, for example, the lack of success ESR had with suggesting
that Fedora license an MP3 decoder:

   http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhl-devel-list/2006-March/msg01286.html

- Chris.
-- 
Chris Ball   <cjb mrao cam ac uk>    <http://blog.printf.net/>