Hello,
Does Audacity MP3 codec is free for commercial use?
Wants to sell MP3 and Wav files created in Audacity do I have to buy a license for mp3 or wav? I know that it belongs to the mp3 codec http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/ff/amm.html
Please help
Audacity does not supply an MP3 codec for licensing reasons.
You can use Audacity for commercial purposes. Audacity does not come with LAME due to licensing reasons. The decision if you can use LAME legally in your country and for your intended purpose without paying a fee is a decision you must discuss with your lawyer.
If you read mp3 it appears that a license is needed if you sell MP3 files but not if the associated gross annual revenue is less than $100,000. However, MP3 patents have expired in some countries and may no longer be enforceable in such countries. Again, you must discuss it with your lawyer. Audacity is not responsible for the use you make of our application.
Gale
As far as I know you can’t buy a licensed stand-alone MP3 Encoder. You have to buy an application that comes with an MP3 encoder. [u]dBpowerAmp[/u] is one program that comes with a licensed copy of LAME. Winamp Pro used to come with a LAME license, but it’s no longer available.
A licensed copy of LAME (or other MP3 encoder) does NOT give you the rights to DISTRIBUTE MP3s… That’s another issue… But as Gale says, it should be OK if you are not making lots of money from it.
iTunes is free and comes with a licensed Fraunhofer MP3 encoder. That means you have no risk of being sued for encoding MP3’s as a private, non-commercial activity, whatever country you are in.
The iTunes EULA does not mention MP3 so presumably your restrictions are as per the MP3 licensing link. I noticed that the iTunes EULA disallows most commercial MPEG-4 decoding and encoding.
Gale
From a licensing point of view it would be much simpler to use an open format such as Ogg Vorbis: Xiph.org