Hi all, according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Licensing_and_patent_issues :
<quote> An exception is the United States, where patents filed prior to 8 June 1995 expire 17 years after the publication date of the patent, but application extensions make it possible for a patent to issue much later than normally expected (see submarine patents <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_patent>). The various MP3-related patents expire on dates ranging from 2007 to 2017 in the U.S.[60] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#cite_note-big-list-60> Patents filed for anything disclosed in ISO CD 11172 a year or more after its publication are questionable. If only the known MP3 patents filed by December 1992 are considered, then MP3 decoding may be patent-free in the US by 22 September 2015 when U.S. Patent 5,812,672 <https://www.google.com/patents/US5812672> expires which had a PCT filing in Oct 1992 </quote> So MP3 should be patent-free then (note: I Am Not A Lawyer (IANAL) / etc.). The saga of MP3 patents has involved several patent litigations (which made some lawyers richer) and involved creating an alternative open format that was intended to be non-patent encumbered from the beginning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis Red Hat Linux which is an American company opted to drop support for mp3 playback from its core Linux distributions which led to it being a commonly asked question and featured in the Unofficial Fedora FAQ: http://www.fedorafaq.org/#mp3 So rejoice! Note that later MPEG-based standards may still be patent-encumbered. Regards, -- Shlomi Fish -- ------------------------------------------ Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ Chuck Norris helps the gods that help themselves. Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply .
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