Re: LAME not included in Debian

[cjw44@flatline.org.uk (Colin Watson)]

starfire@dplanet.ch wrote:
>On the LAME - Homepage, I've read the following:
>
>But in May 2000, the last remnants of the ISO source code were replaced,
>and now LAME is the source code for a fully GPL'd MP3 encoder, with speed
>and quality to rival all commercial competitors.
>
>So I'm asking myself, why LAME isn't included in Debian...

MP3 encoding is patented in some countries by the Fraunhofer Institute.
See:

  http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/unable-to-package

... and the link from there to the discussion at:

  http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0006/msg01213.html

Also the MP3 Tech "Patents and MP3" commentary at:

  http://www.mp3-tech.org/patents.html

Just use Ogg Vorbis instead, it's unencumbered by patents.

-- 
Colin Watson                                     [cjw44@flatline.org.uk]