From: Joris van den Heuvel <joris.bass_at_planet.nl>
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 21:11:04 +0100

> TECHNICALLY, Rockbox violates laws in some districts.

Here's a line of thought:

- I bought the Archos hardware and firmware. Paid Eur 319 for it.
- It's very easy and perfectly legal to run different software on it, which
is exactly what I'm doing (in fact, it's the reason I bought it!).
- I threw out the original Archos firmware. It's just their hardware I'm
interested in.
- I have not copied and distributed any software for which Archos claims
copyright. Archos does not have a patent on the hardware.

Why would I be violating a law? Or are you referring to Fraunhofer, who
charge $0.75 for every piece of software that decodes their MP3 format?
Rockbox is even clear on that: the MP3 decoder is not part Rockbox, it's in
the Micronas chip. So each and everyone of us paid for the right to decode
MP3s.
Received on 2003-11-20