Tomorrow (22 September 2015) is MP3 Liberation Day

[Shlomi Fish]

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.

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