For better or worse, the MP3 format changed the way music is listened to and distributed. Its mere existence moved bands and artists to unimaginable corners of the planet, while serving as a starting point for the development of alternative formats. In its 24 years of history, MP3 gave rise to dozens of disputes and legal battles; however, the Fraunhofer Institute shared through a brief statement that the last licensing program from Technicolor and Fraunhofer for certain patents of MP3 technology has ended.
Napster, Audiogalaxy, Kazaa, Ares, Winamp, the iPod, Chinese players, music streaming... all of these have something in common: the MP3 format. Its adventure began in 1993 with the publication of the ISO/IEC 11172-3:1993 standard, and from then on, the public essentially absorbed this technology. Now, consider the limitations of the time. The internet was in its infancy. Broadband connections were a science-fiction dream, and besides fighting with unstable phone lines, we had to pay a fortune. I still remember celebrating a four-kilobytes-per-second download after reading for an hour the advanced modem commands (AT&F&C1&D2… ugh). Compression was not merely welcome: it was critical to preserving our mental health. What was previously impossible to share, MP3 placed at our fingertips with a 15-20 minute wait. Winamp was born in 1997. Two years later Napster arrived. MP3 had begun its worldwide conquest, and as expected, everyone wanted to join the party.
The legal aspect of MP3 was as turbulent as the format discussions on specialized forums, and if we add the differences between countries, it was essentially a hot potato. What qualifies as free and legal use in one region, enables the possibility of a lawsuit in another. Let's drastically reduce all that chaos and say that the vast majority of patents associated with MP3 expired throughout 2012 in the European Union. The big asterisk (and preferred battlefield) was the United States, since it technically allows extensions in registration applications. Depending on the interpretation, MP3 became free of patents on the other side of the pond on September 22, 2015, or April 16, 2017. And that... brings us to the doorstep of the latest announcement from Fraunhofer.
Last April 23, Fraunhofer and Technicolor (the company that owns and administers the last patent US6009399) terminated their licensing program linked to MP3 patents and software. This opens a new chapter for all those free and open source developments that for years were forced to set aside MP3 support in an attempt to avoid legal conflicts. The first thing that comes to mind is Linux distros, but we should also think about alternative players, mobile applications, and much more.
