[Portaudio] libaudiodecoder - The Cross-Platform Audio Decoder API

[Bjorn Roche]

On Apr 15, 2012, at 10:29 PM, Phil Burk wrote:

> 
> On 4/15/12 6:51 PM, Ross Bencina wrote:
>> Can you support your assumption that using native platform-supplied
>> codecs completely covers any patent licence requirements for
>> applications using your lib (or the native platform libs)? I never saw
>> proof of this myself but maybe it is documented somewhere?
> 
> IANAL but...
> 
> I once had a correspondence with a representative from Fraunhofer/Thompson regarding MP3 encoder licenses. He said that if I was able to call out to a built-in library in Windows for my MP3 encoding/decoding then I would not have to worry about patent licenses. But if I wanted to bundle an MP3 codec in my Java Applet that ran on any platform then it would be an issue.
> 
> The assumption is that Windows has paid the huge fees required by Fraunhofer for the use of MP3 on Windows.
> 

My understanding is that the situation is different on the mac: Apple only paid for the encoding license for iTunes, not the whole OS. I'm pretty sure there are calls for decoding. I could be wrong, but that's my understanding.

	bjorn

-----------------------------
Bjorn Roche
http://www.xonami.com
Audio Collaboration
http://blog.bjornroche.com