[icecast] [thomas at arkena.com: [vorbis] mp3pro and the mp3 streaming license]

[Asymmetric]

At 14:31 6/9/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>On Sat, 9 Jun 2001, Asymmetric wrote:
>
> > It should be noted that this fee applies only if you are delivering in mp3
> > format "for profit."  If you're doing it for free, you don't have to pay
> > them a dime.. from the quoted URL...
> >
> > ----
> > "If MP3 is used for free distribution on the Internet, we will not charge
> > royalties," he says. But "if people monetize, the inventors should have
> > their fair share," he adds.
> > ----
> >
> > I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not charging anything.
>
>
>Alright, so I don't charge for the stream.  Does not the sales of
>advertisement go against this statement, in particular that last line?  I
>might not charge, but I charge advertisers.  Technically the stream is not
>"free" then is it not?  I realize this is a fine line (splitting hairs),

This isn't really a fine line at all.  If after removing your streaming mp3 
content, you had no basis for charging your advertisers, then it's pretty 
clear that the streaming is the real "source" of the revenue, and not the 
advertisements.  In general, the law has shown that if you use technology X 
in your product, then it is at least in part responsible for the revenue 
generated by your product.

>but does anyone honestly think Thompson is going to let people making
>money on something that is free to consumers stand?

Probably not.. so hopefully vorbis gets it's groove on a bit quicker.

-------signature file-------
PGP Key Fingerprint:
446B 7718 B219 9F1E 43DD  8E4A 6BE9 D739 CCC5 7FD7

"I don't think [Linux] will be very successful in the long run."
"My experience and some of my friends' experience is that Linux is quite 
unreliable. Microsoft is really unreliable but Linux is worse."
-Ken Thompson, Interview May 1999.

http://www.freebsd.org
FreeBSD - The Power to Serve

http://www.rfnj.org
Radio Free New Jersey - 435 streams - 96kbps @ 44khz Stereo

http://namespace.org -- http://name.space
Resist the ICANN!  Support name.space!

--- >8 ----
List archives:  http://www.xiph.org/archives/
icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/
To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'icecast-request at xiph.org'
containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body.  No subject is needed.
Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.