Open source MP3 players

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

Open source MP3 players are (you know, things like the iPod) are
slightly difficult due to the MP3 patent (which may or may not be
valid somewhere).

A bigger problem was that the manufacturers wanted to have
PaysForSure certification for Windows and support Windows Media DRM.

But now that almost all the PaysForSure audio providers have been
killed by Microsoft, what value is there in supporting that DRM?  Are
there other ways to get MS DRMed content?

If not, and the majority of manufacturers cannot get into the iTunes
or Zune club, why don't they embrace open source?  Or at least let us
use Rock Box?

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PlaysForSure.

I particularly like this part:

    A 2005 court case strongly criticised the wording of a Microsoft
    licensing agreement related to portable devices[9]. The license
    prohibited makers of portable devices compatible with Windows
    Media Player from using non-Microsoft audio encoding formats.
    Microsoft indicated that the wording of their license was poorly
    written due to an oversight by a junior Microsoft employee.
    Microsoft quickly amended their stringently worded license
    agreement at the judge's behest.

    In a possibly related decision, iriver dropped support for Ogg
    Vorbis from their latest H10 portable music player (no longer
    available in retail) in order to market it with PlaysForSure
    certification. iriver has since added support for Ogg Vorbis (up
    to Q10),[10] as well as a non-PlaysForSure service, Audible, to
    their Clix line of portable media players, which remain
    PlaysForSure-certified.
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