Z:gnu-www-ja-words-to-avoid--3738ff-In the late 1990s it became fe/en

In the late 1990s it became feasible to make portable, solid-state digital audio players. Most support the patented MP3 codec, but not all. Some support the patent-free audio codecs Ogg Vorbis and FLAC, and may not even support MP3-encoded files at all, precisely to avoid these patents. To call such players &ldquo;MP3 players&rdquo; is not only confusing, it also privileges the MP3 that we ought to reject. We suggest the terms &ldquo;digital audio player,&rdquo; or simply &ldquo;audio player&rdquo; if context permits.