In message <Pine.NEB.4.02.9810151800390.1068-100000@duhnet.net>
          Todd Vierling <tv@pobox.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 14 Oct 1998, J3B wrote:
> 
> : > did anyone contact the fellow in .fi who did the one for RiscOS to see
> : > if he felt like sharing his code or doing one for unix?
> 
> : Please keep a low profile on MP3 decoders in this mailinglist.
> : 
> : The latest C'T [german & dutch computer magazine]
> : tells horror-stories about a law-firm trying to collect
> : money of up to US $ 25 per copy [even for PD-software]
> : stating that patents and/or other license agreements
> : apply and that the sample code or its deratives
> : contain many patented routines, that cannot be distributed
> : freely.
> 
> Since the one for RiscOS was done from scratch (the sample code uses
> floating point; his uses fixed-point); I doubt it would apply.

1.) The issue is with free _encoders_, not _decoders_
2.) It's got nothing to do with sourcecode/copyright, but 
    with patents - whether you do a new implementation or 
    not doesn't matter then, unless you invent a totally
    new encoding algorithm that doesn't rely on any 
    patents at all, of course
    
Here's a quote    

> II.a) Software DECODERS 
> *****
> Q. I wish to distribute a FREE MPEG Layer-3 software decoder on my 
> WEB-site. Do I have to pay royalties?
> A. For the FREE distribution of decoders we do not charge a royalty. 
> At the Fraunhofer IIS and OPTICOM web-sites you can find the players 
> we have developed and which may be downloaded for FREE also. Fraunhofer 
> IIS and OPTICOM do not give any technical support for the free 
> players. Emails complaining about bugs in free software will not 
> be answered!
> More in general, as long as desktop software decoders are distributed 
> free-of-charge for personal use, no license fee is expected. However, 
> in all cases we expect that MPEG Layer-3 products reference the licensors, 
> like "MPEG Layer-3 audio compression technology licensed by Fraunhofer 
> IIS and THOMSON multimedia".
> *****
> Q. And what if I sell the software decoder?
> A. In this case, the royalty per decoder is US $ 1,00. We just remark 
> that we have not asserted our patents against decoders of which 
> less than 10 000 units have been sold.

taken from http://www.mpeg.org/index.html/mp3-licensing-faq.html    

Kind regards,

-- 
Thomas Boroske