[Flac-dev] FLAC as part of the Ogg project?

[Josh Coalson]

--- Steve Lhomme <steve.lhomme at free.fr> wrote:
> I agree, but the idea behind the OGG formats is to build patent free 
> codecs. Is FLAC really patent-free ?

I am getting asked this more and more so maybe I should
write up a justification, since I cannot do a full legal
patent search and in the U.S. this would probably not make
a difference anyway.

The short answer is that the FLAC codec is relatively
simple and uses theory, formulae, and algorithms that
are decades old.  Pretty much everything in there has
already been done in other free codecs like shorten
and squish.  I think the reason it caught on is that it
is the first open lossless codec to offer features that
are common in lossy codecs.

Josh


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