Re: MP3

["Michael M." <mcubed@slashmail.org>]

On Fri, 2007-03-02 at 18:44 +0100, Joe Hart wrote:
> 
> I didn't know that Lucent bought Frauenhover though.  That is
> interesting news.


Huh?  Lucent does not own Fraunhofer.

Thompson handles mp3 licensing for Fraunhofer:

Questions about MP3

End Users: Fraunhofer IIS is a research institute. Although MP3 was
developed here, we do not sell any MP3 products to end users. MP3
encoders are available from various companies. They are integrated, for
example, in Apple iTunes, Windows Media 10 and MusicMatch Jukebox.

Companies: Thomson (http://www.mp3licensing.com/) is our software and
patent licensing partner for MP3. Please direct your enquiry to them. On
the web site, you can find the current MP3 royalty rates and the contact
details of Thomson.

http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/fhg/iis/EN/bf/amm/projects/mp3/index.jsp

Thompson has two rates for software mp3 licensing (not counting the
mp3PRO version):

mp3 patent & software license:
Decoder:  US $0.75 per unit or US $60,000 one-time paid up
Codec:  US $5.00 per unit

mp3 patent-only license:
Decoder:  US $0.75 per unit or US $50,000 one-time paid up
Codec:  US $2.50 per unit

The minimum royalties are US $15,000 per calendar year.

http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/software.html


-- 
Michael M. ++ Portland, OR ++ USA
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions
of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to
dream." --S. Jackson