Apple Purchases Rights to MP3 Codec

Wolven Spectre writes "AppleInsider has said and MacNN revealed that at over the weekend Apple purchased the rights to the MP3 Codec from Frauenhofer, the creators of the format, so theat the new Quicktime 4.0 will have a quantum leap up in audio quality, in an attempt to become a leading media standard again.

Comments

That seems a little mis-worded

[ximenes]

I haven't found any mention at AppleInsider or MacNN about Apple buying the Layer 3 stuff from Fraunhoefer.

I have seen mention of Apple incorporating Layer 3 support into QuickTime, which would imply that they have purchased a license to use Fraunhoefer's stuff (which is what EVERYONE has to do, hence Fraunhoefer shutting people down through litigation).

Conclusion: Fraunhoefer still owns the Layer 3 stuff that they developed. Apple is a new licensee. Nothing has changed otherwise.

Streaming MP3s

[Have Blue]

To clarify QT4's streaming: It's not a new codec, it's a new track type and delivery protocol. *Any* file Quicktime can play can become a streaming movie, including (I assume) MP3s. The main disadvantage is that right now they must be served off a Mac OS X machine.

Just what did Apple purchase? Don't mis-read it!

[Bruce Perens]

It looks as if Apple's become a patent licensee. It does not look as if they bought the patent!

Some people are going off the deep end here thinking that Apple's the new MP3 patent cop. I see no evidence of that so far - all I see is that they bought a license, as many other companies have, from the Frauenhoffer Institute.

Bruce

Is it just me?

[Vesperi]

Is it just me or does this sound like a bad thing? MP3 has been one of the better examples of the freedom of the net comming through and forcing the corps to see a new paradigm for music distribution.

But now, a corp - ok apple is once again "cool" but where is qt4 for linux? - own the "free" codec. Actualy I'm surprised, I had assumed the mpeg codecs to have been an open standard, which is why all the record companies were going ape over since they couldn't "Buy it out and shut it down"

So does this mean that once apple corp makes a deal with the RIAA in a move to collect licnce fees from manufacuers of things like RIO? Are they going to file injunctions against all distributors of software that reads/writes this codec? For example CD rippers?
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James Michael Keller

Facts, at least what i remember as the facts

[_Spirit]

Having watched this thread for a number of posts i decided that some more info might be useful.

First of all, MP3 isn't owned by anyone. The fact that it is says "MPEG" means that it is a standard and thus available to everyone.

"Fine" you ask, "So where do Fraunhoser and Apple come in ?" Well, Fraunhofer wrote a piece of software to encode en decode MP3. All the stories of Fraunhofer taking legal steps against ppl over MP3 encoders came into existence because ppl were too lame to write their own encoding software and decided to include Fraunhofers software in their own encoders. Fraunhofer, making a profit by selling its encoding software, acted on this to protect their interests.

"Okay" you reply, "But what about Apple ?"
Apple simply decided to pay Fraunhofer for a license to incorporate this codec in QT4.

What's the big deal ?

What does this mean for MP3???

[Silex]

If Apple did INDEED purchase MP3, what happens to all my music? Will it still be okay for people to make their own MP3 players? Or will we have to use QuickTime if we want the latest MP3 technology?

I don't know about others, but I'm getting a little paranoid about this sudden comercial interest in MP3. (I don't purcahse MP3s ... like many other ppl, i'm sure :P ). I think I'm going to start looking into other technologies, just in case. I'm not sure, but I hear that other formats exsist which are better compressed, and have higher quality (true?).

I wonder if people will even actually BUY MP3 files. I can see the advantage, but it's actually more expensive than ordinary CDs, when you account for the cost of a portable MP3 player, plus a computer, and one fast enought to play MP3s in the background, while other things are happen, like browsing the net. I have two computers, and this PII400 can handle anything, but my old P133 with 32MB of RAM slows down, and often skips, when I connect to the net while playing MP3s. Not everyone who listens to music has a good computer. And very few people have Portable MP3 hardware. At the same time, MANY MANY people have stereos with CD drives, and many people have portable CD PLayers. Plus, playing CDs on a stereo puts no strain on the computer, so one can do work on a slow computer while listening to music (unlike MP3; that's my experiance).

So is there really an MP3 market as big as the CD and tape market? I dunno ... maybe there is.

But back to the original point, does this make a difference to people who use MP3s but no Apple software and hardware??