Full MP3 Support Being Added To Fedora Linux

[starshipeleven]

And do look at the actual result: researchers have developed a new way of compressing audio, used it to fund their research and thereby created one of the most popular audio formats in use today. It inspired many more and better formats, which consumers keep profiting from.

It didn't inspire a damn, that's called competition and would have happened anyway.

The industry adopted it quickly by the way, because...

it was simply better than any alternative at the time and then it reached critical mass fast, so it made no sense to switch to something else even if it was better and free.

That's a far more transparent approach than when directors and politicians decide behind closed doors who gets how much money and from which pot, because on the high levels is it all a political game where neither tax payers, the voters nor the scientist gets to have a say in it. Whereas the use of a software patent allowed consumers to directly vote with their wallet if they want it or if they don't. And we sure wanted it...

hahahahahaha, yeah right, because industry choosing the standard behind closed doors and imposing it on customers is letting people vote with their wallet.
Also please keep the liberitarian propaganda for yourself.

You can argue about how negative you think this was as much as you like, but you did get to choose to pay for its research or to use something else. That's a freedom you often don't get as a tax payer and voter.

Please stop comparing patents to politics just to make patents look good.

In this specific case it was not terribly bad as the patent holder didn't act like an ass, but patents in general lend themselves to so much abuse that it isn't even funny.

[Mike Frett]

Streaming? lol. Yeah nobody ever thinks that someday your favorite Song might disappear from your Playlist. Sorry but I'll keep my CDs and MP3s in addition to Streaming. Some people have to learn the hard way.

[grndzro]

Too bad this happens when MP3 isn't relevant anymore. Kids these days are all about streaming.

I stocked up Panasonic 8gb battery powered MP3 players years ago because I saw that everything was going to eventually be using built in Lithium batteries.
1 high end lithium AA battery plays my audiobooks for 30 hours or so.

[sdack]

RedHat? That's an odd one to mention.
Per revenue, what company has contributed more substantial code?
If you want to make a list of companies who has unfairly profited from open source, i would think RedHat would be pretty far down.

It's not as odd as you think when you've read the article, which is about RedHat. And I didn't read anyone saying RedHat having violated open source licences. Or how else would one profit unfairly from open source?

[Slartifartblast]

Interesting.
When is your set-up (and music) like where you determined 64k seems mostly transparent?
You don't see many folks like you who are willing to admit this, so, non-ironic applause for you!
The audio scene has WAY too many "Golden Ear" snobs for it to be a very welcome community, in my experience.

Hear, hear (get it ?) there are so many audiofools who talk utter crap. Yeah right vinyl is better than digital and FLAC is sooooo much better than 320kbps MP3. Vinyl is a shit medium for many technical reasons and I challenge anyone to a blind FLAC/MP3 hearing booth test run by me using properly encoded MP3s.

[liam]

So there's no need to be sad. Ogg Vorbis had already offered an alternative for those who did have a problem with the licensing, but science should be allowed to directly profit from successful research in order to fund more research and to have the industry pay for it. And as long as we still have patents was this far from being a bad use of software patents. Let's not forget RedHat is still a profit organization. I wouldn't lose any sleep if RedHat had to pay a penny to every open source developer for making money with free software. Just saying...

RedHat? That's an odd one to mention.
Per revenue, what company has contributed more substantial code?
If you want to make a list of companies who has unfairly profited from open source, i would think RedHat would be pretty far down.

[liam]

Same here. Computer or external HDD with thousands of FLAC's and convert everything to 64kbps Opus to carry in my smartphone.

It's increadible how 64k Opus is pretty transparent to me (phillips she9000 here), while 64k mp3 is really crappy.

Interesting.
When is your set-up (and music) like where you determined 64k seems mostly transparent?
You don't see many folks like you who are willing to admit this, so, non-ironic applause for you!
The audio scene has WAY too many "Golden Ear" snobs for it to be a very welcome community, in my experience.

[liam]

Too bad this happens when MP3 isn't relevant anymore. Kids these days are all about streaming.

Ok, what did i miss? Is it 1997?!!!
Is mp3 no longer one of the most used codecs for streaming (the other being some form of aac).

[liam]

Happy to be with Gentoo, where I always have the choice.
I know one can have MP3 and stuff also on SuSE, RH etc. via 3rd party repos, and I know about the patent issues and the possible liabilities of big distributors with a real world office that could be sued - but it still is far from reality not to have decss, MP3 and stuff on by default. I mean, just imagine a first user experience with Linux. They'll shriek and end up saying that Linux sucks because it can't even play a simple MP3 file. Most people will not recognize the patent issues behind all that. (I wonder how nullsoft did handle that licensing back in the days...)

Yeah, a first time user would have a much easier time playing a dvd following their gentoo installation

[sdack]

The problem is that if I copy a free software implementation, then I owe the patent holders a small amount of money. How am I expected to pay that? It doesn't work.

If I do this in low volume, then it is as you say: Nobody cares, except that I would feel a little bad. But say I distribute software! Suppose I am Mozilla, and I want to add MP3 support to Firefox: Maybe I have 1000000 downloads a year (just to say a number), for which I earn nothing, then you see how that was unjustifiable…

Not for their methods, but for the result: A monopolist is someone who owns the market so much that competition is futile.

There is no problem. Nor did RedHat have a problem when they willingly decided not to include it. They could also have decided to pay the fee and pass it onto their customers.

And do look at the actual result: researchers have developed a new way of compressing audio, used it to fund their research and thereby created one of the most popular audio formats in use today. It inspired many more and better formats, which consumers keep profiting from.

The industry adopted it quickly by the way, because they simply charge the consumers and only pass through the licensing fee to them. So in the end is it the consumer who has paid the researchers for developing a new audio format. That's a far more transparent approach than when directors and politicians decide behind closed doors who gets how much money and from which pot, because on the high levels is it all a political game where neither tax payers, the voters nor the scientist gets to have a say in it. Whereas the use of a software patent allowed consumers to directly vote with their wallet if they want it or if they don't. And we sure wanted it...

You can argue about how negative you think this was as much as you like, but you did get to choose to pay for its research or to use something else. That's a freedom you often don't get as a tax payer and voter.