[Icecast] Frauenhofer signing off on mp3, ogg stream player for Macs?

[Romain Beauxis]

2017-05-17 2:03 GMT+02:00 Robert Jeffares <jeffares.robert at gmail.com>:
> I must say this is a very confusing issue.
>
> I generate AAC+ on an open source system which downloaded some code during
> installation from the 3GPP source.
>
> It appears the encoding software is being freely distributed, and hardware
> which decodes the stream pays a licence fee at point of manufacture.
>
> We have such hardware. In a number of locations. One brand has AAC+ only,
> not AAC.
>
> I note VLC also plays the encoded stream.
>
> Encoding and decoding uses sound cards, which have hard coded processors
on
> board, whose manufacturers presumably have paid various patent holders for
> the appropriate rights.
>
> I am reasonably confident the patent holders would not have allowed me to
> download the code without fee if they haven't already taken care of their
> right to reward.

This is not the case. You should rather think of it as the drug dealer
model. The more the codec is disseminated, the more licensing fees you can
charge to big players in the field. This is also why most of the time, only
encoding is required to have a proper license, not
decoding.

Besides, some of these patented/licensed codecs have become open source as
a collateral of being integrated into Android which is itself open-source.

Romain
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