[ Thanks to David
for this link. ]
“Worried about steadily rising royalty fees for online MP3
music companies, a group of open-source developers has created a
new music format they say will be free and will equal or better
MP3’s quality.“
“Dubbed “Vorbis,” the open-source project is being led by
programmers at CMGI’s iCast. It is scheduled be unveiled in beta
form at next week’s MP3.com summit in San Diego. It will be
released to the Web without intellectual property restrictions,
which means software companies, Internet radio firms and music
sellers can use the format without paying patent holders a
dime.”
“That’s different from MP3 itself, the most popular type of
downloadable music files on the Web. In the technology?s early
days, no royalty payments were collected. But the German research
institute that helped created the format is beginning to collect
its dues, charging companies that create MP3 software and hardware
or sell MP3 downloads. Next year it will begin charging Webcasters,
it says.”