Quote: "Using mp3 files in your project cost 2500$! "
The way I understand it from a little research around the web, is that for one, it depends entirely on what country you are in as to whether you need to have a license, as the original format was released publicly(for free) the legal issue is that further people have applied for a patent on the same thing after a year has passed from it's original public release, known as patent extending(can only be done on patents before 1995...im a little fuzzy about it, but it looks like a legal technicality for some corporations or other to suck some more money from us lol) :
"The initial near-complete MPEG-1 standard (parts 1,2,3) was publicly available in December 6, 1991 as ISO CD 11172." - from MP3 Wikipedia.
(please note that MPEG-1 Layer 3 is what is referred to as MP3, NOT MPEG-3, thats a different format again)
Secondly, I think, from the wording of the sites I looked at, that licensing is only needed if you are producing encoder/decoder software. I think that to record, and use either freely availalbe/licensed coverter software to convert your music into the MP3 format(or record straight to that format) simply to play in your application, you wouldnt need a license to do that(for free apps, commercial apps may different), as the encoding/decoding would, I assume, be done by GDK. As long as its your own music of course, copyright would still apply to commercial music.
Here is a little trivia about the MP3 format for you :
*MP3 license revenues generated about €100 million for the Fraunhofer Society in 2005
*Current patent holders declined to enforce license fees on free and open source decoders, which allows many free MP3 decoders to develop.[36] Thus, while patent fees have been an issue for companies that attempt to use MP3, they have not meaningfully impacted users, which allows the format to grow in popularity.
If I am wrong about the above, someone please correct me, as I use MP3 format music in some of my apps, and would rather not have to worry about some possible future law suite if I am incorrect.
As a last note, if its a commercial project you are working on, given the legal ambiguities above, I would probably steer clear of the format or make sure I have licensing for the countries the project is being released in.
If it ain't broke.... DONT FIX IT !!!
