I can't speak about this with any great authority...
But WinAMP (and other US distributed players such as Sonique) include
MP3 encoding modules which are not Fraunhoffer based and there have been
no patent lawsuits concerning this.
In fact if the MP3 format were proprietary EVERY MP3 encoder & decoder
would also need to pay royalties to Fraunhoffer.
CDEX for instance advertises itself as a "legal" free encoder... How can
this be if the MP3 format itself is proprietary.
There are plenty of hardware MP3 encoding and decoding IC's which do not
use Fraunhoffer AFAIK.
-JMS
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Roger Sherman
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2001 5:34 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [newbie] mp3 encoder missing???
On Sun, 12 Aug 2001, Jose M. Sanchez wrote:
> Eh, I don't think this is accurate.
>
> MP3 formats nor the MPEG format are proprietary... It was defined by a
> consortium....
>
> Which is why there are so many legal alternatives to Fraunhoffer's
> encoder...
>
> Fraunhoffer's encoder ITSELF is proprietary, not it's output.
So why is bladeenc illegal in the US then? I thought that was not based
on Fraunhoffers encoder?
peace,
Rog
