[vorbis] Debian mp3->vorbis transcoding

Moritz Grimm gtgbr at gmx.net
Mon Sep 2 11:08:31 PDT 2002



> Andy wrote:
> > if u get the lame mp3 decoder is that free?
fungus wrote:
> No. Since last week no mp3 decoder can be free.
> Thompson has a patent and it wants money from
> you...

Actually, nothing has changed during the last 7 years. The
freebeer-decoders-don't-have-to-pay-royalties exemption was removed from
their website over a year ago, but according to Thomson this exemption
still exists. The one problem is the patents vs GPL clause, the other is
the fact that GPL'ed software *can* be sold (you're free to do that if
you wish, think Linux distributions), and that this is not the "free"
Thomson is talking about.

<p>Moritz
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