Sounds like what we used to go through years ago with sound editors that had to have a separate button for downloading and inserting the MP3 encoder because the Fraunhofer license prohibited it from being directly distributed with the software.

No, with MP3 the encoders/decoders source code was always available in the normal source code repositories (e.g. FFMPEG) - the problem was just with binary distributions.

This is still the case in Audacity... doesn't rip mp3's out the box.

Sure it does, it just always relied on external encoders.

I use audacity for recording vinyl occasionally, but for CD audio I have a bunch of cli scripts. Much easier.

If those external encoders are there. That’s the “non-free” checkbox / package in Linux.

Post the patch in a country that doesn't care? I remember OpenBSD used to do something similar with encryption to get around US laws.

I think Canonical did this with codecs for a long time too, behind a prompt

Linux mint didn't need to ask due to being released from France, where software patents did not apply.