Comments on: Major stuff from Fluendo

By: Alessandro Giusti

Alessandro Giusti — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

This is really *great news*. I think you are really doing the Right Thing guys!

By: Peteris Krisjanis

Peteris Krisjanis — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I have to say you done almost impossible. To tackle all this patent absurd (luckly, we have stop any chances for softpatents in EU so far), we need to be clever. This is one how it could be done and it is good to see some solutions. Of course, RMS would bash you, but I solute you.

Thanks again.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

from http://www.fluendo.com/resources/Contract_for_Distributions_mp3.pdf

The Distributor is a software provider which distributes to the public a compilation of software (the “Distribution”) composed by several applications to be running under the GNU/Linux or other operating system on a Personal Computer Desktop system.

2. Except as expressly authorized by Fluendo in writing,
it is forbidden to:

...
(vii) use this Final Product on non-PC devices like tablets, pda, portable players and other embeded devices.

how can any distribution agree to this? tablets are plane laptops with a special screen. also if i understand this right, one can not use the plugins on a server.

By: Tom McMahon

Tom McMahon — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Wow, this is really cool - will this mean that most distro’s will ship with mp3 support out of the box? Or will the licensing wierdness prevent this?

By: Reply

Reply — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Don’t expect to see this shipped out of the box, for mainly two problems:

1) if you ship this plugin, you can’t ship GPL apps that use gstreamer (like Rhythmbox or Amarok).

2) if you ship this plugin you’re shipping non-free software, which rules out distros like Debian, Fedora and openSUSE.