Author Topic: New MP3 licensing fees for decoders  (Read 11209 times)

Sly

  • Guest
New MP3 licensing fees for decoders
« on: 29 Aug '02 - 00:53 »
How will the new MP3 decoder licensing fees affect MP3 use in BASS and MO3, in particular the free-for-freeware option?

An open letter from Xiph.org Foundation, developers of Ogg, in response to the new licensing fees.

shadow2xp

  • Posts: 20
Re: New MP3 licensing fees for decoders
« Reply #1 on: 29 Aug '02 - 06:28 »
Don't make me laugh  :laugh:

Zep

  • Posts: 27
Re: New MP3 licensing fees for decoders
« Reply #2 on: 29 Aug '02 - 19:42 »
Goodbye MP3 - welcome Ogg Vorbis.  ;D

Ian @ un4seen

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 26149
Re: New MP3 licensing fees for decoders
« Reply #3 on: 29 Aug '02 - 20:10 »
I could be missing some small print, but as far as I can recall, the MP3 licensing rates have been like that for a while. They're not clear whether you have to pay if your software is free, but IF they are now charging for freeware decoding, I can't see what they're going to gain by it. The big player developers (Microsoft/AOL/etc...) are already licensees, and the independant free player developers aren't going to be able to afford $15000-$60000, so Thomson/Fraunhofer are unlikely to gain much new revenue from it. Then again, the published list of licensees does not state the type of license they have, so maybe they are just trying to get a bit more money from the likes of Microsoft and AOL. Who knows.

If the worst did come to the worst, and they demanded that you "pay up or remove MP3 decoding", then we could always fall back to the Windows MP3 codec for free :)

Whatever the case on decoders, I don't see it affecting MP3-encoded MO3 files as that would come under "music distribution/broadcasting", which is free for non-commercial use. So, as long as you're not selling the MO3 files (and making atleast $100000), they can't ask for anything.

Sly

  • Guest
Re: New MP3 licensing fees for decoders
« Reply #4 on: 30 Aug '02 - 00:27 »
In a statement from Thomson, there was a small semantic change to the license but this does not affect free MP3 decoders.  So I guess it was a false alarm.  All is good!  :)

Luckie

  • Posts: 16
Re: New MP3 licensing fees for decoders
« Reply #5 on: 20 Jul '03 - 17:22 »
Now, can anyone tell me in plain words whether I need a licence fee for my free MP3-Player using bass.dll or not?

WingZero

  • Posts: 167
Re: New MP3 licensing fees for decoders
« Reply #6 on: 20 Jul '03 - 20:01 »
No. You only need a license if your software is shareware or commercial (meaning you plan to sell it in some form.)

Luckie

  • Posts: 16
Re: New MP3 licensing fees for decoders
« Reply #7 on: 21 Jul '03 - 07:20 »
Thank you. That's all I wanted to know.

dj28

  • Posts: 63
Re: New MP3 licensing fees for decoders
« Reply #8 on: 21 Jul '03 - 20:43 »
Hi all. If I decide to build an mp3 player and charge for it - then i first need to buy a licence from Ian ;) and then the other licence-fee for mp3?

But if I use MS mediaplayer for source then I don't need to pay for anything?

P.s. Ian, you are doing a great job on bass.dll. Keep up the good work!

little_jay

  • Posts: 15
Re: New MP3 licensing fees for decoders
« Reply #9 on: 25 Jul '03 - 19:43 »
Quote

If the worst did come to the worst, and they demanded that you "pay up or remove MP3 decoding", then we could always fall back to the Windows MP3 codec for free :)


This is a pretty sad feature to have to request, but it would be nice to have a flag that would force BASS to use the Windows MP3 decoder, so we could all be in the clear.