-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Rahul Sundaram wrote: When will people understand that as long as mp3 is encumbered with patents and licensing issues, it will never be supported as adefault format (ever again)? I have been looking at ways to promote other formats like theora/ogg, but it is rather difficult due in part to ubiquity of mp3 capable devices and appliances out there in the market that people expect to work flawlessly and out-of-the-box with Linux. I don't know many devices that will work with flac or ogg files out-of-the-box, only a handful support such formats (for the time being) and with the ever increasing issue of DRM, we can only expect an intensification of the "media wars".

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Tommy Reynolds wrote: To me the most "satisfactory" answer would be to redirect them to a media player that will get them what they want and which is available for Linux: RealPlayer. Granted we've got HelixPlayer (the core of Real), but (again) with mp3 support disabled. That would be about the *most* legitimate way to paliate the issue, IMO. It would be even better if when trying to open an .mp3 in Helix a dialog pop up and asks to "update" Helix to Real, so that users could "effortlessly" enjoy their mp3s with a (small) download handled automagically and only asking their root's password for the final installation (or whatever). However this solution heavily depends on Real.com allowing doing that from within Helix on voiced non-mp3 supporters like Fedora (or Debian, for that matter). This would actually benefit Real, as their player would be more and more used by Linux new commers, however last I saw their license it was rather restricive on the re-distribution, and an accord must be in place with the Fedora Project or Foundation prior for the project to be able to include such a feature, and even that may not be high on the priority list of many Fedora developers, so it would be pushed back or rejected altogether, even when such a feature would result in broader adoption of Fedora (for example) since it nicely interoperates with Real. If the users don't like RealPlayer, there's always the more underground solutions (like adding gstreamer plugins and the like), but that would then be responsiblity of the user, not the distribution.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Patrick Barnes wrote: I'm confused... Why can't we provide direct information, even when it involves using a third party tool? I mean is not like Fedora is endosing any illegal activities or anything of the sort by pointing to a legi source like Real Player... I don't understand why can't that be said straight.

Patrick Barnes wrote: I think i have a better proposal: install a stub plugin for GStreamer (just like the stub used in XMMS back then mp3 support was removed in the first time). This stub would show a window with a short message stating mp3 support is not available, recommending ogg and having two links: one to the ForbiddenItems page in the wiki and another to Fluendo, which offer a free and legal plugin for playing mp3 files (that plugin is not free enough to be included in the distro but free enough to be recommended). -- nicu my hats collection: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/hats/ Open Clip Art Library: http://www.openclipart.org my Fedora stuff: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro

Uttered Patrick Barnes <nman64(a)n-man.com&gt;, spake thus: Do you have a URL for the dreaded mp3 license that is the root of all this evil? -- I'm already an anomaly, I shall soon be an anachronism, and I have every intention of dying an abuse!

Tommy Reynolds wrote: Here: http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/software.html (Thomson/Fraunhofer is the patent holder). Note: Fluendo people have payed for the license and they freely distribute a decoder: https://shop.fluendo.com/. The Fluendo plugin can't be included in the distro, but you as an end user can legally download and install it, no matter in which part of the word you live (as opposed to the well known Lame, which may be not legal everywhere). -- nicu my hats collection: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/hats/ Open Clip Art Library: http://www.openclipart.org my Fedora stuff: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro