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Fedora Will Get Full Mp3 Support, As IIS Fraunhofer Terminates Mp3 Licensing Program (fedoramagazine.org)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the adding-encoding dept.

An anonymous reader quotes Fedora Magazine: Both MP3 encoding and decoding will soon be officially supported in Fedora. Last November the patents covering MP3 decoding expired and Fedora Workstation enabled MP3 decoding via the mpg123 library and GStreamer... The MP3 codec and Open Source have had a troubled relationship over the past decade, especially within the United States. Historically, due to licensing issues Fedora has been unable to include MP3 decoding or encoding within the base distribution... A couple of weeks ago IIS Fraunhofer and Technicolor terminated their licensing program and just a few days ago Red Hat Legal provided the permission to ship MP3 encoding in Fedora.

4 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds good! by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Waiting until the patent expires requires patience, but Linux has outlived a LOT of patents, and as more expire, expect to see more currently-patented tech offered in the base distribution instead of having to hunt down a repository (such as Pacman) that has them in another part of the world where the patent is already expired oir is otherwise legally allowed to be distributed.

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    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  2. Fraunhofer can stuff it by CrashNBrn · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Who cares about Fraunhofer's MP3? We've had LAME since 1998, and Ogg Vorbis since 2000. LAME's VBR (Variable Bit Rate) is better than even AAC, let alone Fraunhofer's crap licensing. And we can't forget FLAC and WavPack.

  3. this seems bigger than Linux by thewolfkin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    doesn't this affect all open source? Programs like Audacity can finally export MP3s natively without including "complex" and sometimes confusing instructions on how to download the MP3 codec

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    Just another second banana
  4. Re: Linux? Bad choice. by teg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Finally, the GPL doesn't require you to give source to everyone. You only have to give it to people who ask for it.

    You don't have to give it to anyone who ask for it either. Only if they got the binaries from you, and thus are a licensee. The main benefit of that is that if you provide a GPL program (usually by modifying something that is already GPL) to a customer customized for their needs and include the source code, no-one else can require you to give them the source code. Thus, the changes can remain confidential. The customer does have the source code and can modify as much as she wants, however - or have someone else do it.