[Openal] MP3-Player and License

[Tyler Olsen]

Benjamin Grauer wrote:
> Now i want to implement the same thing in mp3, and here come my two
> questions:
>
> 1. What's about the license: can we still ship our game through the GPL??
> 2. How to implement it at all: What libraries/Methods/portability?
> all hints are really welcome
>
> goodle did not give me anything usefull, so any help/hint as appreciated
>   

1. You can still ship your game source with the GPL (I'm not sure if you 
can GPL the mp3 files), but you have to pay hefty licensing fees for 
using even one MP3 file in a game, even if you are distributing that 
game free of charge. I have personally contacted the licensing company 
myself and confirmed this with them two years ago.

http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/

The fee is $2,500 US, or $3,7500 US if you are using mp3pro. Unless you 
have a reason that you absolutely *must* use MP3, I strongly recommend 
you stick with Vorbis Ogg. Its free, you've already have it working, and 
the quality/file-size isn't all that different from MP3 (in many cases, 
it is better). I see absolutely no reason why anyone would want to go to 
MP3, unless you want players of your game to be able to easily play the 
game's music in their personal media players (Ogg is playable in almost 
all music players of course, but it is not as ubiquitous as MP3s are).


2. I haven't looked into this myself and haven't bothered to either 
because of the issues with MP3 I pointed out above, so I can't help you 
here.


- Tyler