Z:gnu-www-ja-savingeurope--907c96-In the US and some other count/en

In the US and some other countries, free software for MP3 is impossible; in 1998, US developers who had developed free MP3 -generation programs were threatened with patent lawsuits, and forced to withdraw them. Some are now distributed in European countries&mdash;but if the European Patent Office makes this planned change, they may become unavailable there too.