Delirium wrote:
It's quite recent: about 10 minutes old. I just
updated my system, and
the various MP3 playback things are all of course still in the official
repository. Debian pulls things pretty aggressively when legal troubles
arise, and there's been a lot of discussion about MP3 but nothing's been
pulled. I didn't follow the discussion, but there was quite a bit two
years ago when that Vorbis open letter came out, and I assume by the
lack of action over such a lengthy period of time that the discussion's
ended in favor of "no legal problems with MP3 playback".
So what exactly does that mean? Does it mean the MP3 decoding patent is
invalid, or does it mean that Debian can continue to use the software
that was written before the patent was enforced, or something else?