If any of you artists out there are distributing MP3 files of your work,
please contact me because I'd like to discuss the legal issues vs. the
high price of l3enc and the pro encoder, and the fact that even the
registered versions are only legal for vaguely-defined "personal edition"
use. I am in no way associated with Fraunhofer, Opticom, or anyone else
involved at that level in the development and marketing of MPEG Layer III.
But I do want to figure out a way to allow artists to distribute MP3 files
of their own work, without the threat of legal action (even if distributed
at no charge!) -- and with the ability to distibute the files at bitrates
of their choice, and so forth. Take a good look through:
http://www.iis.fhg.de/departs/amm/layer3/sw/index.html
'Please note that even for registered users, the use of the shareware is
limited to "personal edition" purposes.'
'...Depending on your specific technical needs, the knowhow-share sum may
range from several 10.000.- $ to more than 100.000.- $. In any case, we
expect significantly more money for the encoder, as this is the part that
is responsible for the performance of a Layer-3 system (and so it is the
part where most of our knowhow is concentrated). So you know the
framework....'
MP3Compressor is considered pirate software by Fraunhofer, and they are in
the process of threatening to prosecute anyone who distributes it. Someone
forwarded an email they received from Fraunhofer's piracy guy.
Apparently, though the interface is legal freeware, the program uses
Fraunhofer's patented CODEC. The story is a little murky after that, but
apparently the very same CODEC is legally available for free if you
download Microsoft's NetShow. Also the version of MP3compressor I
obtained could only encode at 128K.
--Mark
On Sun, 17 Aug 1997, Henrik Andersson wrote:
quoted 6 lines Check up this mp3 encoder:
> Check up this mp3 encoder:
>
> MP3 Compressor (MP3Compr09f.exe) [Freeware!!]
>
> You can find MP3 Compressor if you search for "MP3Compr09f.exe" with
> ftpsearch. (http://ftpsearch.ntnu.no/ftpsearch)