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Will FLAC
Remain as Free as it is Today Forever?
FLAC is the acronym for Free Lossless Audio Codec and is
basically a file format that is similar to MP3. When using
FLAC for compressing files, you find that it is done without
any loss in the quality of the audio files and can be played
in your favorite player like you would use an MP3 file.
The name FLAC indicates that FLAC is a free codec which means
that FLAC and Ogg FLAC formats are open to the public for any
use by the public. FLAC can be used for both commercial and
noncommercial use. With this provision, FLAC is free so that
commercial developers can write FLAC or Ogg FLAC software,
without having to pay any money or charges.
As long as FLAC is compatible, FLAC can be used without any
restrictions of any kind. In addition to this, FLAC is indeed
free as there are no licensing fees or any form of royalty
that has to be paid to use FLAC file format. There are also no
licensing fees or royalties that has to be paid for the
distribution, selling and the streaming of media in either
FLAC or Ogg FLAC file formats.
FLAC is really free as it is licensed under the new BSD
license. According to this license, the libraries of FLAC can
be used with any application that is open or proprietary,
linked or in whole so long as there is acknowledgement made to
Xiph.org Foundation in the usage of the source code of FLAC in
whole or in derived works.
With FLAC being free to all, it is easy for you to specify the
stream format without actually having to get any permission
prior to it. This is possible because Xiph.org has the rights
to set all specifications on FLAC. In addition to all this,
with FLAC being free, neither its format or its implemented
decoding and encoding methods can be covered by anyone,
through any patent.
In fact, to maintain the free software status for FLAC, its
project encourages all developers not to implement any form of
copy prevention features of any kind to the software. Once
this copy prevention feature is implemented, FLAC will not
remain free software for future use.
With FLAC being a free software available to all, anyone who
wants to copy audio files and listen to good music find it
possible with the help of this software. With this benefit and
accessibility to good music, it is not possible for FLAC to
lose its status as free software for some time in the future.
So you will be able to enjoy music with FLAC in the audio
hardware available today, and of course, in many more products
in the near future. Its compatibility with the number of
compatible software is sure to go on increasing in the future
with the introduction of new products and hardware to the
market every now and then.
It is because the Xiph license is free that libraries have
been used in the implementation of FLAC in commercial
products. This includes the firmware of hardware devices where
you find Open Source licenses to be rather problematic. So you
can see that FLAC is really a free file format that can be
used by anyone and everyone. It proves to remain this way for
quite some time, without any chance of it becoming a paid file
in the near future.
Source:
http://www.flacsite.com |
