libmp3lame0
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Is libmp3lame0 free software? It does not seem to be in the repository. I would like to develop some podcasts with Audacity and I understand that you need lame to make the mp3 files. My "spider-senses" tell me that I might not be making mp3 files 8^).
I've understood it is free software but not included because of patent issues (in countries where software patents exist).
So you could download it from http://lame.sourceforge.net/ or perhaps use mp2 (package toolame makes .mp2 files you can rename to .mp3 if required) or if you don't need mp3 files you could use better codecs, e.g. lossless ones.
Lossless codecs (such as FLAC) will result in larger file sizes, which may be inconvenient for people who need to download them. You could use Ogg Vorbis, which is available in Trisquel and results in comparable quality and file size comapred to MP3. Or you could just download lame from sourceforge; it is free software.
name at domain escreveu:
> I've understood it is free software but not included because of patent
> issues (in countries where software patents exist).
>
> So you could download it from http://lame.sourceforge.net/ or perhaps
> use mp2 (package toolame makes .mp2 files you can rename to .mp3 if
> required) or if you don't need mp3 files you could use better codecs,
> e.g. lossless ones.
Já fiz isto uma vez (gerar arquivo mp2 e renomear para .mp3), mas
lembrem-se que não é MP3, a tecnologia é outra e dependendo de onde for
tocar, não funciona corretamente como um MP3. (eu tive problemas com isso)
O melhor é OGG ou usar o Lame mesmo.
I am a translator!
Would it be possible to add a separate (and optional) repo with software which can be used in countries where software patents do not apply or would that conflict with Trisquel philosophy? If that is possible it would make installation easier.
> Would it be possible to add a separate (and optional) repo with
> software which can be used in countries where software patents do not
> apply or would that conflict with Trisquel philosophy? If that is
> possible it would make installation easier.
I see no problem in including free patented programs in our main repo.
There are hundreds of patent claims over core components such as the
linux kernel, graphical system, OpenOffice, and other apps anyway.
I am a translator!
Ok. Just one further question about patents. I have read about Apple/Microsoft patents which prevent Freetype from using the "bytecode interpreter" in order to render truetype fonts. As it is stated on freetype web, it is still possible to use this technology on countries where these patents do not apply. I wonder whether Trisquel (and/or Ubuntu) uses it and whether it could provide some font rendering improvement over the "auto-hinting" process provided by default by freetype (I think that particularly on lower resolution TFT screens it would). Apparently it is possible to activate this bytecode interpreter at compilation time -as freetype author states distributions such as Fedora has deactivated it by default to avoid patent issues-. There is a discussion of this issue here http://freetype.org/patents.html and also here http://david.freetype.org/cleartype-patents.html. I have no idea how to modify the appropriate line in the code of freetype libraries -or whatever is implied-, so if there is any chance to have either the instructions to do it or have an alternative package for testing with the bytecode interpreter activated I would be willing to test it and report results.Thanks.
> Is libmp3lame0 free software?
Yes. But it is covered by patents, so it might require you to pay
royalties in some countries.
> It does not seem to be in the repository.
It is in our Trisquel 4.0 main repo now.