On Tuesday 11 July 2006 13:32, Temlakos <temlakos@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > The issue with MP3 files is not technical at all, but legal. > > MP3 is a patented algorithm, and therefore, closed-source. > > Fedora /will not/ distribute anything that plays closed-source stuff. In > some jurisdictions where Fedora is accessible, that would be illegal. > > So what many of us end up doing is either (a) installing a third-party > module to enable XMMS to play MP3 files anyway, or (b) do what you did: > build XMMS yourself, with the MP3 capabilities preserved. > > Now anyone else here will likely tell you to search the archives of the > Fedora Users' list for the full context of the discussion of MP3 files. > And I will say that perhaps the MP3 issue has been "talked to death." > > But before I send you to the archives, I'd like to say a few words about > something that's simply missing from the MP3 debate, and that is: /where > do MP3 files come from/. > > Some contributors to this list impress me as having the opinion that > most, if not all, MP3 content comes from individual users who convert, > or "rip," Audio CD content into this closed-source format, "just because > all the players out there play MP3." I wouldn't know about the reality > of that situation. I have never played /any/ music on any device other > than my computer or an Audio CD or DVD player. (Am I the last remaining > non-adopter of iPod or iTunes? Maybe. I don't really care.) My musical > tastes are somewhat more limited than those of most people here, so that > I am more likely to tune in a radio station that plays "my kind" of > music than to try to record single tracks from CD albums to another > medium. So this "format war" doesn't really affect me. > > My advice to anyone who /does/ have Audio CD content that they would > like to play "on the road" is to /abandon/ MP3 as a format and instead > look for devices that use the /OGG Vorbis/ format. Now /that/ format is > another "lossy compression format," and a lot of software I have seen > that will read MP3 will also read OGG Vorbis. The difference is that OGG > Vorbis is open-source, while MP3 is closed. OGG Vorbis is just as good > as is MP3 for the purpose of copying Audio CD content to a more > "portable" format. So if /you/ have the original, uncompressed (or > compressed by lossless compression only) sound content and want to know > where to rip it to, rip to OGG Vorbis. You'll save yourself a lot of > headaches. > > The problem is that a lot of /original multimedia content/ is in the MP3 > format. Users who want access to /this/ kind of file have a problem: > they often can't access the content in any other format. MP3 is all they > have access to. And if they /could/ convert MP3 back to WAV (which is > the uncompressed format) and then to OGG Vorbis, they're going to lose > some parts of the file that they can't afford to lose--because MP3 and > OGG Vorbis differ /significantly/ in those parts of the original sound > that they discard. (I'll give you an example: some years ago I acquired > an excellent recording of the Red Army Chorus singing the State Hymn to > the USSR. That's an MP3 file. Now if I choose not to get an MP3-friendly > routine for my copy of XMMS, then what do I do with that file? Play it > only on a Windows box? Somehow I don't think that's exactly in the > spirit of Linux.) > > That problem isn't going away any time soon. The resolution, if it > happens at all, will come /only/ when open-source devotees become a big > enough "market share" that multimedia Webmasters will at least make > their content available in open-source formats--say, "Click here for the > MP3 and there for the OGG Vorbis file." And of course it illustrates one > of the last hurdles that the open-source movement now faces: the > overwhelming prevalence of closed-source multimedia formats on the > Internet today. > This is among the best answers I've seen to the MP3 question. :-) For more on Fedora's stance, there are some new pages up on the wiki: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Multimedia -- Patrick "The N-Man" Barnes nman64@xxxxxxxxx http://www.n-man.com/ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nman64 Have I been helpful? Rate my assistance! http://rate.affero.net/nman64/ --
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