hi,

i searched the forum, but found nothing on this, please don't send a first poster to hell right away :-)
i understand that fraunhofer and some other companies as well patented mp3, techonologies related to it, etc, and also that fraunhofer asks for royalties.

"Some of those patents could be avoided in an MP3 implementation by either not using several features of the standard, or by using different algorithms than those specified. But what is important is that there are some of those patents that you will not be able to avoid, so practically it means that you can not use any MP3 implementation without using some parts of those patents."
(http://www.mp3-tech.org/patents.html)

so all i've read about this, boils down to that if i listen to an mp3 file (and no artist copyright issues here), then i run a good chance that what i'm doing is illegal? is there a yes or no answer here?

is there any decoder (or encoder, for that fact) that is not subject to these patents? how does lame come in? i had the impression reading the docs that maybe lame is an exception here?

enlighten me on this pls.

m.

My understanding is that it might be illegal to distribute an unlicensed MP3 encoder, but it isn't illegal to encode MP3's, and definitely not illegal to listen.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

From the way I understand the Fair Use legal policy (at least in the States) is that it is not illegal to make personal copies of copyrighted material so long as they are not broadcast, sold, or lent to others without the explicit permission of the copyright holder(s). Thus, encoding mp3's for yourself (as I do with my own CD's/LP's) is perfectly legal, just as making a tape for your car would be. However, trading mp3's of copyrighted music is illegal (according to the industry) since the file is leaving your person for another destination (somebody else's computer). The caveat here is copyright protection. . defeating copyright protection is obviously illegal, much like hacking a security system to gain acess to a building would be. That hasn't stopped me from encoding mp3's thus far. For me this is all a non-issue as I don't download music, but rather encode all of my own--I'm into quality, not quantity.

Also, since FhG "owns" the rights to MPEG 1 Layer 3 as intellectual property (patented from 1989-1993, depending on what country you live in), LAME and other encoders are said to be illegal in some countries, including the US. . .though I obviously don't give a shit about that

off:::
this 'views' counter must obviously gone nuts. if i jump into the thread and back immeditaley, there it goes showing two more hits. crazy popular thread :-)

Actually DISTRIBUTING lame might be illegal, but the use isnt?? did i understand that right?

The use is illegal if you don't pay the fees to FhG and Thompson.

You can even distribute Lame if you pay the proper fees.

IIRC, MediaJukebox distributes Lame legally, and pay for the fees.

Regards;

Roberto.

Using some patended things is not illegal. It is only illegal if the patent holder is asking some fees and those fees are not paid.
As FhG/Thomsom is not asking fees for any decoder, you can decode (and listen) totally legally.
If they are requiring fees for a specific encoder and the distributor of this encoder didn't acquired a patent license by paying fees, then this encoder is illegal.
So as an example if FhG required me to pay in order to distribute Lame, and supposing I didn't payed, then my distribution would be illegal.
As they never required me to pay fees (although they asked me other things), you might consider my distribution as legal. I think that for most other people distributing Lame in a binary form the situation is similar.


Quite tricky, but this could work in court. (yes, a legal point is considered as true only once it has been tested in a justice court)

Another point is that distributing source code only is perfectly legal, and that any contributor to Lame can legally use it.

ok. thank you all for replying.

Or just dodge the legal grey area entirely...

http://www.vorbis.com