Re: Intention to package: FreeAMP
On Mon, 6 Jul 1998, Joel Klecker wrote:
> At 5:08 PM -0700 7/6/98, Martin Schulze wrote:
> >Ben Gertzfield wrote:
> >> Martin> Gooood. Does it comes with its own decoding routines that
> >> Martin> are GPL'ed, too? If so, does it run on the console or
> >> Martin> within X11?
> >>
> >> Everything's GPLed. It's in a very preliminary state, so it's
> >> just text/console for now.
> >
> >Cool! Another non-free package to throw away. Thanks!!
>
> Not so fast, MPEG 1 Layer III audio uses a patent-encumbered algorithim.
>
> <URL:http://www.mpeg.org/~tristan/MPEG/mp3-licensing.html>
> <URL:http://www.mpeg.org/~tristan/MPEG/mp3-licensing-faq.html>
Somebody find out the patent numbers, I notice they don't list any of them
on the web site. A patent on the decoder is going to be really broad.
Last I heard Layer III is just Layer II + LZW - and I don't think Layer II
is patented.
It might be possible to circumvent the patent depending what it is.
Franhaulfer claims to hold patent(s) and I'm sure they'd like everyone to
think it applies to the decoder. But the lack of any -REAL- information
has always made me suspicious.
Now the trick comes in, if we discover that the patent is probably
unenforcable (but Franhaulfer maintains they will enforce it) then do we
distribute it?
Jason
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