Re: LAME codec library

John Edwards wrote:
> The patent holders are only interested in those who sell encoders and 
> decoders, or so it would seem.

Not that I would do anything different in your shoes, but I'm pretty sure most 
lawyers would tell you that if there's a legitimate patent covering the 
technology, then it's your responsibility to contact whoever you can to 
negotiate a license, not wait and see if they notice your activity and have a 
problem with it.

So my advice re: Winamp is don't count on anything... if you don't seek a 
license, you are taking a risk.

As for Rarewares, there could be any number of reasons why they haven't 
contacted you. Maybe being a small-time non-commercial site is a factor...or 
maybe they haven't even noticed yet...or maybe they just dropped the ball... 
or maybe they're not sure they have a legitimate case. Nothing would surprise 
me!

> The above is based upon experience and not on any legal knowledge or 
> correspondence with the patent holders. In reality, some of the patents 
> have already expired and I believe the remainder will expire between now 
> and the end of 2017.

That's correct, as far as anyone knows:
http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/MPEG_patent_lists#MPEG-1_Audio_Layer_3_patents
http://www.tunequest.org/a-big-list-of-mp3-patents/20070226/

When I mentioned mp3licensing.com, I forgot that that's only for the 
Fraunhofer/Thomson/Technicolor patents. I think you also have to get a 
separate license from Sisvel/Audio MPEG for a bunch of the other patents:

http://www.audiompeg.com/index.php/mpeg-audio 
http://www.audiompeg.com/index.php/mpeg-audio/license-terms

Then there's the AT&T Bell Labs/Alcatel-Lucent patents, but I think they've 
all expired now.

[obIANAL]

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