Thanks to Dennis for tweeting this BBC story about labels pushing a new brand fpr MP3 audio. It reinforces the theory that the move away from DRM has more to do with opportunities than freedom. I am fine with that as the trend doesn’t seem likely to reverse at this point.
Even though it lacks DRM, there are critics of the MP3 format despite the quotations about freedom in the article. It is a patent encumbered format and software and device makers must pay license fees to Fraunhofer, fees which are usually transparent to the end consumer. I think it is unlikely that Fraunhofer will do anything more than continue to collect these royalties. Those fees, though, have interfered with and affected development of free software tools for working with MP3. There is always the remote chance, too, that Fraunhofer will change its mind and your “free” library of MP3s, even files you encoded from your own creative efforts, may be held ransom for some reason.
There is a free software compatible alternative, if you didn’t already know: Ogg Vorbis. I sympathize with its supporters; they are promoting a truly free format that is just as good as MP3. I try to do my part to help popularize the format too.
In that vein, I will admit the first thing I thought when I saw this story was that I’d like to see someone remix the logo to say “Ogg 100% Free”, or something along those lines. If you do it, I’ll use it for the subscription link for the feed of Ogg Vorbis formatted episodes of my podcast.
here you go:
http://foxserver.be/media/oggfree.jpg
http://foxserver.be/media/oggfree.xcf
If it’s so free, why do the makers of music playing devices not incorporate support for it? I would think that it would be a no-brainer to support additional formats that have no fees. It is these hardware manufacturers, though, that prevent Ogg from gaining any foothold. I’m currently in the process of re-ripping my entire extensive CD collection to MP3 because I want to listen to it!
Wow, Nido, that was fast. Thanks! And double extra bonus points for including a Gimp source file, too.
Wolfger, there are portable media players that support Ogg Vorbis though you are right, MP3 is the most compatible format. And there is also the wonderful RockBox, http://www.rockbox.org/, project that supports re-flashing many players, including quite a few models of iPods, to add Ogg Vorbis support along with a slew of other great features that many native firmware builds don’t supply.
I would suggest that the head start that MP3 has and the cost of retooling embedded devices explains the difficulty in finding out of the box support for Ogg Vorbis on most portable players. There has also been some confusion around possible submarine patents in the format but I believe it has been well cleared of those concerns.
However the dominance of MP3 shouldn’t excuse us from trying to popularize Ogg Vorbis as a free as in speech and beer alternative and help to change its acceptance among both users and device makers. It is a little easier for me, as a creator, since there is no cost to offering multiple formats other than the time needed to encode them and the necessary clarity in presenting them. Install RockBox, if you can, to support Ogg Vorbis and a great media project. FLOSS also had an interview with one of the maintainers recently well worth the listen if you still need convincing.
Actually, there is something to Wolfger’s comment. The issue with Ogg is that there is no certainty that it doesn’t violate someone’s patent. Minor players (no pun intended) can get away with putting out Ogg-compatible devices, it seems, but if the iPod started supporting it Apple risks a major and expensive patent infringement case. With MP3, Apple pays a fee that guarantees indemnity. Mush safer. Lacking a patent is actually a weakness here. Of course, this really just highlights the brokenness of software patents, but that’s another story.
I like “100% freedom” better than “100% free”
and “Ogg” or “ogg” better than “OGG”
Great idea!
Yeah, now that you mention it, “freedom” is more evocative of “free as in speech” than just “free”. I hadn’t noticed the case, either. Maybe Nido was just trying to be consistent with MP3 being all capitalized? True that when you see users familiar with the format, they refer to it as “ogg”, “Ogg” or a “.ogg file” as you suggest.
Since Nido kindly included the sources, I’ll muck around with it. I also want a PNG version rather than a JPG, which the Gimp file lets me do on my own.
I wonder if there are any lessons to be learned from what happened with the popularization of patented graphics formats such as .gif?