MP3 patents (was: Freerunner's Future)

[Al Johnson]

On Friday 05 June 2009, Christoph Pulster wrote:
> > It's more than welcome to see Openmoko Inc. is still very much in
> > support of the Freerunner/GTA02 and will provide the community with
> > support in areas like the hosting infrastructure as well as the legal
> > side (trademarks).
>
> Please remember the patent infridgements concerning MP3 (www.sisvel.it).
> Openmoko Inc. did not solve this issue until today.
> As a result, all sales inside EU are patent infridgments, all reseller
> inside EU community have to live with the fact, that local customs seize
> their Freerunner order anytime.

Openmoko removed the mp3 codecs from the images they supply, and from their 
repositories, causing frustration for many. I don't know what image they now 
ship with, but would be surprised if they haven't removed the mp3 codecs from 
that too. If it doesn't contain the codec it can't infringe the patent. What 
more do you expect them to do?