[NTLUG:Discuss] MP3 Encoder

[Paul Ingendorf]

I was able to answer my own question through a few patent searches at 
http://www.delphion.com/

#'s 05742735 & 5579430

Although I'm not so sure how I feel yet about a codec based of Huffman encoding 
that seems to be nothing more than an upward bit shift for the stream in order 
to reduce the size of the lookup table.  I did see the licensing on their 
website which is the way I think shareware should be not 30-60 dollars for a 
piece of code that does little to nothing and if anything will probably crash 
my machine and cause data loss.

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

Even at $5 its a small price to pay to be legal in the US.


Quoting Paul Ingendorf <pauldy at wantek.net>:

> Interesting, were can I find more information on this issue with regards
> to the 
> legalese of mp3 encoding software?  I am asking as the only mention I
> can find 
> of it is on the ogg vorbis website were they are justifying why people
> should 
> move to ogg.  I have seen mention of this before but never have I seen
> anything 
> without bias towards this being a fact.
> 
> I know that the Mandrake version I run on my server currently has the
> lame mp3 
> encoder which I have successfully scripted on many occasions to rip some
> of my 
> cds to mp3 without a hitch.
> 
> Quoting mike <Just_Mike_Y at Yahoo.com>:
> 
> > I searched for a MP3 encoder a couple months ago.  I found that
> Thompson
> > 
> > electronics patented mp3 encoding, and Beginning in 2001(?) they want
> to
> > 
> > charge you to include mp3 encode functionality in your programs. 
> I've
> > seen 
> > some MP3 encoders on foreign websites (sites hosted in countries not
> 
> > supporting US IP patents)  However, those sites warn you to not
> download
> > if 
> > its illegal, with specific mention that it IS illegal for US
> residents.
> > 
> > 
> > Bottom line is: In the US, MP3 encoders are illegal without a
> license
> > from 
> > one of (microsoft's, RIAA's) little brothers, so don't expect it to
> be
> > 
> > readily available as free software for quite a while.
> > 
> > If you are still interested in reading more about this (i.e. going
> to
> > ignore 
> > legal warnings,) Try searching info bases of non-US linux distro's 
> for
> > "MP3 
> > encoder."  
> > 
> > 	http://www.suse.co.uk/index_uk.html
> > 	
> > Or googlesearch ".rpm MP3 bladeenc download"
> > 
> > (or substitute your packaging extension (.zip, .dbm, etc) and (lame,
> > notlame, 
> > other encoder that your frontend supports)
> > 
> > The open source community's answer to Thompson electronic's belated
> > licensing 
> > move is to create a 'patent-free' spec for compressed music (as well
> as
> > other 
> > multimedia types in the future.)  
> > 
> > 	http://www.xiph.org/ogg/
> > 
> > OGG vorbis is the 'open' answer to  mp3 (altho I haven't found a
> working
> > 
> > encoder binary for OGG yet.) OGG and MP3 are not mixable (??as best
> I
> > can 
> > determine--anyone know for sure??) All the MP3 players you can buy
> at
> > Fryes 
> > will not play OGG's.(?)  However, KDE's kmedia player has .ogg play 
> > capability, and XMMS has .ogg play. The one or 2 .oggs I've
> downloaded
> > sound 
> > similar to .mp3's of the same size/length ratio (through my 1 inch PC
> 
> > speakers anyway.) 
> > 
> > I'm more closely watching the OGG Tarkin project (still in the cloud
> 
> > stage--a.k.a vaporware.) which will a video compression spec that is
> > patent 
> > free.  My plans to take over the world with a video recorder are
> based
> > on 
> > this technology (heh)
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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