Z:gnu-www-ja-free-digital-society--84f800-Then there are the patented fo/en

Then there are the patented formats, such as MP3 for audio. It's bad to distribute audio in MP3 format. There is free software to handle MP3 format, to play it and to generate it, but because it's patented in many countries, many distributors of free software don't dare include those programs; so if they distribute the GNU+Linux system, their system doesn't include a player for MP3. As a result if anyone distributes some music in MP3, that's putting pressure on people not to use GNU/Linux. Sure, if you're an expert you can find a free software and install it, but there are lots of non experts, and they might see that they installed a version of GNU/Linux which doesn't have that software, and it won't play MP3 files, and they think it's the system's fault. They don't realize it's MP3's fault. But this is the fact.