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The problem with codecs in Linux is not a problem with Linux, It is a problem with software law in the United States, which lags well behind the rest of the world. For most of the world, the installation and use of these codecs is straightforward and legal.
It is not only the questionable liability for illegal codec use that troubles US patent law. It is the entire US system of vague patents on the "look" and "feel" of software that complicates development and use of software here. Our inability to fix this morass is and will cause the US to lose its primacy as the foremost developer of software worldwide.
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