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It's time to change from MP3 to Ogg!

If you found this link there is a chance that you use in any way the mp3 audio format. As you perhaps ignore it, this format is covered by several patents from Thomson Multimedia and Fraunhofer Gesellschaft.

Previously, the using of mp3 for decoding (listening) purpose was free; so many software and hardware were freely available and this freedom contributed to the expansion of the mp3 file format and the development of many mp3 applications.

Now, the licensing terms have just changed and there is a fee even for decoding purposes. This means that any free project will have to stop because they will not have the capacity to users to pay the fee. You will have to pay more for a player to listen your music stored in mp3 files and tomorrow one may ask you to pay twice or more (you can find a very funny analogy with the Microsoft Word file as you have to eternally upgrade your software to read your texts).

This is the consequence of the use of patented softwares or file formats. Patents on softwares allow customers to be held in a cage with moving and uncertain licensing terms.

But this is the best thing that may have happened and will help to destitute a patented file format to the benefit of an open and free one: Ogg Vorbis. This is explained in an open letter to Thomson Multimedia.

You can immediately encode and listen music with the Ogg file format (even the famous Winamp is able to read Ogg file since v2.80). And you have the certitude that this file format will remain free in the future (The Ogg Vorbis file format is covered by the GPL license).

Here are some benefits of using Ogg files:

So don't forget to learn from mistakes and promote Ogg format instead another patented one !

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