> http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/unable-to-package > > AFAIK, this is not about software using Fraunhofer's code, it's about > MP3 encoders.
Lame does not contain any of the Fraunhofer Institute code, the lame source code is fully GPL. Other mp3 encoders, refered to at wnpp/unable-to-package are based on the Fraunhofer Institute code. However, personal and commercial use of compiled versions of LAME (or any other mp3 encoder) requires a patent license in some countries. Which qualifies for non-free in Debian as the patent is only approved in Germany and USA. Mark From: http://www.mp3dev.org/mp3/ Following the great history of GNU naming, LAME originally stood for LAME Ain't an Mp3 Encoder. LAME started life as a GPL'd patch against the dist10 ISO demonstration source, and thus was incapable of producing an mp3 stream or even being compiled by itself. But in May 2000, the last remnants of the ISO source code were replaced, and now LAME is the source code for a fully GPL'd MP3 encoder, with speed and quality to rival all commercial competitors. Personal and commercial use of compiled versions of LAME (or any other mp3 encoder) requires a patent license in some countries. [...] Personal and commercial use of compiled versions of LAME (or any other mp3 encoder) requires a patent license in some countries. >From http://www.mp3-tech.org/patents.html Fraunhofer Institute has been the main developer of MPEG audio Layer-3, and the MP3 standard that has been approved is mainly based on its work, which Fraunhofer has protected with a patent. It is noticeable that this patent has been approved in 1989 in Germany and in 1996 in the USA (so, after the establishment of the MP3 standard) under the number 5,579,430, but not in other countries. THOMSOM claims to possess patents related to MP3 too, but I did not find anyone.
