jaddams did an excellent job answering this. Thanks from MTU too!
To be legal with MP3, MTU must PAY Thompson CF in France US$5,000 A YEAR to provide any MP3 player, and another US$5,000 A YEAR to provide any MP3 encoder. That does not include royalties on the code to provide these functions, only the RIGHT to provide them legally. This won't happen as we will only do what is legal, and I can't recover $10,000 a year payments for this. MP3 users think it is free stuff... not so!
