Re: [Lame-dev] MP3 patents expired; Fraunhofer/Technicolor end licensing program

[Thomas O. <tho...@or...>]

Am Sun, 21 May 2017 14:51:44 -0600
schrieb Mike Brown <mi...@sk...>: 

> It is only slightly more helpful. It confirms that "The licensing program 
> coming to an end is due to the fact that the last patent included in the 
> program expired" on April 23rd. 

Hm, April 23rd. They didn't say which one so that we finally could
compare estimated dates of expiry.

> However, it says the program only covers "core" mp3 patents, and it cautions 
> that "there might still be some implementation–specific patents (or patents 
> for other functional enhancements) that have not expired."

I guess we are talking about things like surround sound or MP3pro. The
surround feature with the extra channels as auxilliary info and the
natural backwards-compatible stereo downmix is actually really neat,
but given the lack (or interest in) surround music, 5.1 sound is
attached to movies, where there is a plethora of codecs that support it.

What I really perceive as a strange twist of media reality is the
general message in the headlines abount MP3 being dead. Are people's
minds so poisoned? When you don't have to pay anymore to use a certain
technology (idea/algorithm, at that!), you have to stop using it?! I
was surprised to read such misrepresentation in tech media. I have the
suspicion that all the years of  preaching about free software, free
ideas, free algorithms had little real impact apart from getting
companies to use open source software to build walled gardens.

I wonder if the LAME website could drop a note about the freedom of
MP3, anynow. I will mention it in the release notes (website news) of
the next mpg123 version.


Alrighty then,

Thomas