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List:       kde-multimedia
Subject:    [Patents] mp3 decoder in KDE
From:       Martin Vogt <mvogt () rhrk ! uni-kl ! de>
Date:       2000-10-15 14:03:13
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Hi,


today was an articel on :

http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-10-14-002-20-OS-SW

that mp3 decoders needs licence fees for mp3 software decoders
at the end of the year:


> Other wrench is being thrown into the MP3 mix.
> Much of the technology underlying the MP3 music
> format is patented by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany.
> They've smartened up and will start
> charging royalty fees for decoders, encoders, hardware products,
> and the distribution of any MP3 file at
> the end of this year. 

This is not true:

http://mp3licensing.com/royalty/swdec.html

>mp3 Software Decoders/Players distributed free-of-charge via the Internet for
>personal use of end-users :
>
>         No license fee is expected for desktop software mp3 
>         decoders/players that are distributed free-of-chargei
>         via the Internet for
>         personal use of end-users. 

One problem might be for vendors (RedHat,Suse)
which burn kdemultimedia on a CD and sell it, but this
problem did always exists (example: xmms/mpeg123 are part of distributions
for years)


regards,

Martin



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