Re: GNOME-media on the road to 2.4.0

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

    No, what we wanted was an exception text we could ask the library
    developers to add, to make distribution of these libraries legal in
    countries where there are patents covering the code in them.

Either I am misunderstanding or that is impossible.
If a library is covered by a patent, then only a license
from the patent holder can make it safe to distribute
the library in such countries.

    Well I see your point and I agree with what I think is the idea behind
    it. But personally I think we need to offer support for patented
    formats, at least for decoding them, as that is a prerequisite for
    allowing people to recode their media files into free formats.

I agree we should do that, but we have to do it in a way that
supports the principle that software *should* be free.
We should not distribute or recommend non-free software
to the public, because that would undermine our own cause.

    Offering a download from Brazil isn't what I would call a grandma
    friendly solution. 

There is nothing particularly difficult about downloading from Brazil.
If the site is set up well, it can be just as easy as downloading from
anywhere else.  This solution is both friendly *and ethical*.