tyler_durden wrote: > pablolie Wrote: >>Without a doubt, when (it's not even an "if") I go lossless I'd have a >>very strong preference for FLAC. But the fact it's open doesn't mean >>that the big guys with vested interest can't hijack it in the end if it >>suits their purpose - it's happened before in the open source community. > > So what is your point? Are you going to use a proprietary lossless > format instead of a free lossless format because the free lossless > format "might" become proprietary some day? > > You sound like you don't want to use a proprietary format but you're > affraid to use an open source format.
Contrary to most people's expectation, MP3 is not free or open source, it is proprietary. The format and codecs are owned by Thomson and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, and the encoders have always had licensing fees. In 2002, they added licensing fees on decoders, and as a result, RedHat removed MP3 decoding from their free distributions. The hardware player manufacturers pay a fee per unit. It isn't a lot, but it is not zero. That was part of the motivation for MS and Apple to invent their own systems, so they can save costs of the license. -- Pat http://www.pfarrell.com/music/slimserver/slimsoftware.html _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
