Hi.
"Raab, Andreas" wrote:
Uh, oh ... MP3 is patented (at least to some extent). Those interested may look at
http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/mp3.html
which has a separate section on licensing/patents.
From a link there:
- The ISO source code is freely available, and no charge is asked for it,
as long as you do not compile it and do not distribute the binaries.
What a joke.
- For the free distribution of decoders, they do not charge any royalty.
So, Squeak can decode mp3 files for free and then no trouble.
- For the sold decoders, they ask a royalty of US $ 1,00. But as their
patent does not cover the decoding part, they cant ask it.
Again no problem.
- For hardware decoders (like MP-Man), a royalty of US $ 2,00 is asked,
but they cant ask it neither.
No problem with hardwired VMs in Squeak machines running on a DSP either.
- For software encoders, freely distributed or not, the royalties are
US $ 25 per encoder. The situation becomes here a little complicated. If you write any encoder using the encoding scheme described in the patent (this which is used in the ISO code), you must pay. You can try to write an MP3 encoder without using this encoding scheme, so in this case you will not have to pay, but its obvious that its nearly impossible.
Opinion: this is outrageous. What if Knuth asked for royalties to the readers of his books?!?!
- If listeners have to pay for a song, they ask a fee of US $ 0,01 per song.
If the encoder used is cover by their patent, they can ask it.
What a joke, again...
Andres.
squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org