On Fri, May 07, 2004 at 11:20:14AM +0200, Alexander Leidinger wrote:
> On Thu, 6 May 2004 15:21:57 -0400
> Robert Holt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Hello:
> >
> > I scoured the net for the answer to this question, and I couldn't find it.
> > I found your name on the lame sourceforge site.
> >
> > I work for National Public Radio, a non-profit radio network. We'd like to
> > use the LAME encoder to encode some of our content in MP3 for streaming on
> > our Web site at http://www.npr.org/ <http://www.npr.org/> .
> >
> > My question is: Do we need to pay for a license to use the encoder to the
> > patent pool including Thomson and Fraunhofer?
> >
> > I've been using the encoder in testing under Linux, and it's an incredible
> > piece of work-it's fast...and it works so well...I'd like to continue to use
> > it when we move to production.
> >
> > Please let me know-I can't find the answers anywhere...
>
> >From looking at www.mp3licensing.com I don't think so, they don't accept
> royalties from end users. But this is just a guess, I've CCed the mp3
> encoder list, maybe someone else knows an answer. If you don't get an
> answer, I suggest to ask Thomson (they have a contact listed at
> www.mp3licensing.com).
If you use the encoder, you must have purchased a patent license
"period". Of course, MPEG isn;t going to concern itself with
individuals. If you do it in the name of NPR, you really really need
to have a real license :-)
Also, if NPR takes in more than $100,000 (sorry, being pedantic :-), I
the answer is not only "yes" but you also owe per-stream/per-download
royalties to MPEG.
However it's easy to believe NPR would be a special case in one way or
another. I have a few URLs I can point you to, or you bring it up on
the vorbis or icecast lists at Xiph.org. We started Ogg precisely
because "we're in the industry" and didn't find the royalties (and
vague unofficial pledges of selective enforcement by Thomson)
reasonable.
Monty
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