On Thu, Jul 26, 2001 at 06:48:05PM -0400, David Walluck wrote:
> LAME shouldn't be illegal. It no longer uses any ISO code. If you think
> it's illegal, please tell me why. I understand it is patented, but I
> don't believe you need a license if you don't use any of their code. Is
> this not true?
David,
A patent means you own the rights to use an invention/process. The ISO
code is copyrighted but is also pateneded. Using the ISO code in
anything that is distibuted commercially would require a license to do
so. Fraunhaufer (or however you spell it) seems to have ignored
requiring a license of the patent for playback. However, they have not
ignored that for encoding.
So unless I'm terribly mistaken LAME would still require a patent
license and shouldn't be included in the distribution. Of course I'm
not a laywer so maybe I misunderstood.
--
Ben Reser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://ben.reser.org
Wizard's First Rule - People are stupid, they will believe anything
if they want it to be true or they fear it is true - Terry Goodkind
