Are MP3s Illegal?

There’s a new threat (well, seem­ing threat) spread­ing on the Inter­net these days, mostly per­pet­u­ated by a recent press release. This is cur­rently being dis­cussed on many forums, too, and some point to the MP3 licens­ing web­site.

In a nut­shell, the cre­ator of the MP3 encod­ing process is attempt­ing to col­lect roy­al­ties from cre­ators of MP3s. And this, appar­ently, is threat­en­ing Inter­net mar­keters who gen­er­ate and dis­trib­ute MP3s with some hefty lawsuits.

I per­son­ally don’t buy the argu­ment, and here’s why…

Before I explain, let me share what one mar­keter pointed out:

Note: No license is needed for pri­vate, non-​​commercial activ­i­ties (e.g., home-​​entertainment, receiv­ing broad­casts and cre­at­ing a per­sonal music library), not gen­er­at­ing rev­enue or other con­sid­er­a­tion of any kind or for enti­ties with an annual gross rev­enue less than US$ 100,000.00.

I’m speak­ing in Las Vegas right now, and I heard all three speak­ers (the orig­i­na­tors of the press release that’s caus­ing a furor — pro­mot­ing their web­site — Gina, Joe C. and Joe R.), and I don’t buy it for sev­eral rea­sons (and these are just my opinions):

1. It’s the same as the big GIF/​Compuserve licens­ing con­tro­versy from a few years back, but fell in the water because of social and com­mer­cial pres­sure (and gave rise of the PNG for­mat). This is also seen with poten­tial explo­sion of the OGG for­mat if this fol­lows the same path. (See Vor​bis​.com.)
2. MP3 licens­ing, like the GIF licens­ing, is mostly for com­mer­cial enti­ties who cre­ate processes (soft­ware) that con­tain the algo­rithm that encodes and com­presses MP3s. Not peo­ple who cre­ate MP3 sound files. So the licens­ing fee is really for larger com­pa­nies or soft­ware companies.

   For instance, it’s like bak­ing a cake and writ­ing a recipe. Say the recipe con­tains a spe­cific brand-​​named ingre­di­ent, do you have to pay the brand-​​name owner a roy­alty each time you bake? No. But, if you were the pub­lisher of the recipe book, and decide to spec­ify a brand name ingre­di­ent, you may have to pay a license for using their name (mostly not).

3. Like GIFs, they will be mus­cled out by larger multi-​​million dol­lar com­pa­nies. For instance, one of the biggest trends right now is Pod­cast­ing. Thus, mak­ing Apple (Mac, cre­ator of the iPod and iTunes), a lot of money.

   Sony was the first to intro­duce MP3 play­ers, DVD play­ers with MP3s and more — and now, many, many other com­pa­nies do the same. They have bil­lions of dol­lars worth of MP3 cre­ation equip­ment in the mar­ket­place right now. And this doesn’t include large soft­ware com­pa­nies with pro­grams that cre­ate MP3s, like Microsoft, etc.

Now, let me ask you: do you think large com­pa­nies who are mak­ing a for­tune off of the cre­ation of MP3s would allow some­thing like this? No. Like the GIF out­cry, they will deal with or mus­cle out the licen­sor in some way over time.

My 2 cents.

About the Author

Last 5 Posts By Michel Fortin

• How to Capture and Captivate Attention
• The Real Problem With The Flaw of Attraction
• Two Shining Stars in an Age of Darkness
• Changes, Relaunches, and Extreme Makeovers
• Superior Value Equals Superior Sales

Other Related Posts

• Three Hot Trends to Watch Out For
• The Real Sinister Side of Forced Continuity
• The Proposal Live On Stage!
• Is Facebook a Viable Marketing Tool?
• How to Improve Your Email Open Rates