[ITP] libmad/libmad0/libmad-devel: A high-quality MPEG audio decoder

[Brian Dessent]

Corinna Vinschen wrote:

> I'm not talking about the licensing of libmad, I'm talking about Fraunhofer
> and MP3, for instance.  Is it safe to have decoders and/or encoders in the
> distro, just because they are OSS?  As I said, I don't like the idea to get
> into trouble...

You're correct.  The mp3 format/algorithm is patented, and you are
supposed to obtain a license if you ship software that uses it. 
<http://www.mp3licensing.com/help/developer.html#5>.  It doesn't matter
what the license of the source code is, because patents apply to
algorithms and methods not to specific implementations.  This is why a
lot of noncommercial linux distros have to omit mp3-playing capability
from their package list and relegate it to "extras" or "third party
sites."  So, no mp3 libs in Cygwin would seem to be the prognosis.

Brian