Sorry for the crosspost. Got this off of cooker.
Seems redhat had a knee-jerk reaction. http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=70983 They could of course be playing safe. Long live Ogg! [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I forward this to the cooker list. > > I wrote to Frauenhofer and their response is below. This does not fully > answer our question as it does not address Open Source but commercially > sold software decoders. BUT, it does say the licensing policy has not > changed and since Mandrake has not been sued up till now, that should be > a good indicator that Mandrake should continue the way it always has - > that is to continue (as before) to INCLUDE software based Open Source > MP3 Players in the distribution. > > Hope this helps to calrify the issues involved. > > Regards, > > Jason Greenwood > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Re: MP3 Licensing Question > Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 22:47:01 +0200 > From: Stefan Geyersberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Organization: Fraunhofer IIS-A > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Hi, > > the following statement was sent to the Slash Dot.org Web site for > clarification. > It should be up within the next days. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Steve Syatt > SSA Public Relations for Thomson multimedia (the lower case is not a > typo...) > My Tel: (818) 501-0700 > > Statement from Thomson Multimedia, mp3 Licensing > > In a posting appearing Tuesday August 27, 2002 on the Web site > 'slashdot.org,' an individual cited a change in the mp3 license fee > structure of Thomson and Fraunhofer. The writer of the post apparently > misread the mp3 licensing conditions, as Thomson's mp3 licensing policy has > not experienced any change. > > To clarify, since the beginning of our mp3 licensing program in 1995, > Thomson has never charged a per unit royalty for freely distributed > software > decoders. For commercially sold decoders - primarily hardware mp3 > players - > the per-unit royalty has always been in place since the beginning of the > program. > > Therefore, there is no change in our licensing policy and we continue to > believe that the royalty fees of .75 cents per mp3 player (on average > selling over $200 dollars) has no measurable impact on the consumer > experience. > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > Jason Greenwood wrote: > > Dear Sir/Miss, > > > > A war is raging in the Open Source Community regarding MP3 Players. In > > particular, the inclusion of the XMMS MP3 Player Plugin in the > > forthcoming Mandrake 9.0 Release. Is it required to obtain a license for > > software based MP3 Players that are Open Source (Free)?? Your pages used > > to address this but have been removed. Please clarify for all involved. > > > > As an OSS software user I hope that you make exemptions in your > > licensing for Open Source Projects as improvements in the format are > > returned to you in the form of source. As such you receive valuable > > development input in place of royalty fees. I was not commissioned by > > anyone to write this to you. I am asking on my own behalf and on behalf > > of Open Source Software Users the world over. > > > > Kindest Regards, > > > > Jason Greenwood > > > > > > > > -- Paolo There is a 3% difference in genetic material between us and apes. That is enough to give us Mozart, Einstein and Jack The Ripper. _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
