Ripping from CD to FLAC, and then transcoding to lossy (was: More on MP3 and open formats)

Bill McGonigle bill at bfccomputing.com
Tue Feb 27 20:09:40 EST 2007


On Feb 27, 2007, at 18:26, Jason Stephenson wrote:

> * From what I've read, Ogg may not be all that safe to use patent- 
> wise. Is this just FUD, or is there something to it?

I've heard the claim that it's patent-free hundreds of times.  The  
FAQ at vorbis.com says:

> What is Ogg Vorbis?
>
>     Ogg Vorbis is a new audio compression format. It is roughly  
> comparable to other formats used to store and play digital music,  
> such as MP3, VQF, AAC, and other digital audio formats. It is  
> different from these other formats because it is completely free,  
> open, and unpatented.

But last time I checked breathing was patented, so I've always been  
dubious of the claims.  I don't know that it's possible to do an  
exhaustive patent search to make this claim with a very high  
confidence level.

So far nobody's sued, though, which is a good sign compared with  
other formats.

Also, remember, Ogg is the container, vorbis is the codec. You can  
have a FLAC Ogg, for instance.

-Bill
-----
Bill McGonigle, Owner           Work: 603.448.4440
BFC Computing, LLC              Home: 603.448.1668
bill at bfccomputing.com           Cell: 603.252.2606
http://www.bfccomputing.com/    Page: 603.442.1833
New Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/
VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf



More information about the gnhlug-discuss mailing list