Lasse Penttinen
29 Aug 2002 14:30
Newsforge has done excellent job by digging into this topic that's been red hot for the last few days. Looks like we were all 'slashdotted' big time..
Dave Arland, a U.S. spokesman for Thomson Multimedia, says that MP3 licensing terms have not changed in seven years, and that as far as he knows there are no plans to change them in the future. According to Arland, the Slashdot poster who claimed Thomson's license structure changed recently "was apparently misinformed."
The controversy was created by the removal of this line in the old MP3 royalty licensing page from the current version: "No license fee is expected for desktop software mp3 decoders/players that are distributed free-of-charge via the Internet for personal use of end-users."
But the lack of these few words on the latest version of the MP3 licensing Web site does not represent a change in Thomson's policy.
Arland says Ogg Vorbis is apparently using this small Web site wording change "to get publicity," and that if Ogg Vorbis or anyone else wants to produce multimedia encoders and players and give them away, that's fine with Thomson. But he said Thomson does not do that and never has; that its policy has always been to allow free use of the company's MP3 patents in "freely distributable software" while charging royalties to all commercial software or hardware makers that use Thomson's MP3 technology.
Newsforge.com