[vorbis] mp3pro and the mp3 streaming license

[Monty]

To answer an earlier asserion "this takes away the reason for Vorbis",
that doesn't quite work out true for two reasons.  First, Vorbis has
been rolling along nicely before there were any streaming fees
announced at all (and it just got more expensve, not less, although
what Thomson announced is hardly any sort of worst case scenario).
All the previous fees (the ones that have meen motivating migration to
Ogg) are still in place, in this case encoder/decoder royalties. 

Second, mp3 still costs money, and even WMA is currently cheaper.  The
point is that these things can change.  Music distribution must be
using a clearly free and freely implementable/usable technology to
acheive to survive and thrive.  No one has to upgrade / license a car
radio each time they want to pull in a new station (although
ClearChannel would undoubtedly love that idea).

So, Thomson avoided doing anything blatantly stupid.  That's not
particularly surprising as they took some time to think about this
move after botching a few previous decisions.  However, it's still the
case that mp3 just got more expensive.  Again.

> This "related to distribution" is pulled open too widely.  As long as
> the artist/radio station does not charge for the mp3 there needn't to
> be paid license fees.

For streaming, yes. it looks that way.  This is notably non-parallel
with the download terms (where a free downloadable mp3 is still
charged if part of a per-profit business), especially considering that
there is no technical difference in the end result of streaming or
downloading.  Maybe we should send Thomson a letter.... :-)

Monty

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