Few questions about MP3 and Ogg Vorbis

[Sebastian_Mares]

Greetz!

I have heard that FhG and Thomson own patents for MP3 and that you have to pay when creating MP3 enabled applications. Do you also have to pay when creating freeware tools using BASS for example? I wanted to create a freeware multimedia tool which also plays MP3s.

Another question is about Ogg Vorbis. Do I need to install vorbis.dll and ogg.dll separately or are they included in BASS.dll version 1.8?


Thanks!

[Azoth]

I have heard that FhG and Thompson own patents for MP3 and that you have to pay when creating MP3 enabled applications. Do you also have to pay when creating freeware tools using BASS for example? I wanted to create a freeware multimedia tool which also plays MP3s.

Unless things have changed even FREE players are required to pay licensing fees to decode MP3 files for playback.

Check out;
http://www.mp3licensing.com/
See if you can make heads or tails of it. There pricing scheme is worse than Microsoft Open Licensing.  

Another question is about Ogg Vorbis. Do I need to install vorbis.dll and ogg.dll separately or are they included in BASS.dll version 1.8?

There is no need to install either the vorbis.dll nor the ogg.dll files. All the code is in the BASS.DLL file.

Thanks!

No problem.
.Azoth.

[Sebastian_Mares]

Unless things have changed even FREE players are required to pay licensing fees to decode MP3 files for playback.

Oh my God!!!
50 000 USD one time fee and 15 000 USD annual royalties! I am 16 - I don't have that much money!