# LANGUAGE translation of https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-audio-format-matters.html # Copyright (C) YEAR Free Software Foundation, Inc. # This file is distributed under the same license as the original article. # FIRST AUTHOR , YEAR. # #, fuzzy msgid "" msgstr "" "Project-Id-Version: why-audio-format-matters.html\n" "POT-Creation-Date: 2021-09-22 08:26+0000\n" "PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n" "Last-Translator: FULL NAME \n" "Language-Team: LANGUAGE \n" "Language: \n" "MIME-Version: 1.0\n" "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=CHARSET\n" "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n" #. type: Content of: msgid "Why Audio Format Matters - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h2> msgid "Why Audio Format Matters" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "An invitation to audio producers to use Ogg Vorbis alongside MP3" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><address> msgid "by Karl Fogel" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "The patents covering MP3 will reportedly all have expired by 2018, but " "similar problems will continue to arise as long as patents are permitted to " "restrict software development." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "If you produce audio for general distribution, you probably spend 99.9% of " "your time thinking about form, content, and production quality, and 0.1% " "thinking about what audio format to distribute your recordings in." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And in an ideal world, this would be fine. Audio formats would be like the " "conventions of laying out a book, or like pitches and other building-blocks " "of music: containers of meaning, available for anyone to use, free of " "restrictions. You wouldn't have to worry about the consequences of " "distributing your material in MP3 format, any more than you would worry " "about putting a page number at the top of a page, or starting a book with a " "table of contents." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in. MP3 is a patented format. " "What this means is that various companies have government-granted monopolies " "over certain aspects of the MP3 standard, such that whenever someone creates " "or listens to an MP3 file, <em>even with software not written by one of " "those companies</em>, the companies have the right to decide whether or not " "to permit that use of MP3. Typically what they do is demand money, of " "course. But the terms are entirely up to them: they can forbid you from " "using MP3 at all, if they want. If you've been using MP3 files and didn't " "know about this situation, then either a) someone else, usually a software " "maker, has been paying the royalties for you, or b) you've been unknowingly " "infringing on patents, and in theory could be sued for it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The harm here goes deeper than just the danger to you. A software patent " "grants one party the exclusive right to use a certain mathematical fact. " "This right can then be bought and sold, even litigated over like a piece of " "property, and you can never predict what a new owner might do with it. This " "is not just an abstract possibility: MP3 patents have been the subject of " "multiple lawsuits, with damages totalling more than a billion dollars." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The most important issue here is not about the fees, it's about the freedom " "to communicate and to develop communications tools. Distribution formats " "such as MP3 are the containers of information exchange on the Internet. " "Imagine for a moment that someone had a patent on the modulated vibration of " "air molecules: you would need a license just to hold a conversation or play " "guitar for an audience. Fortunately, our government has long held that old, " "familiar methods of communication, like vibrating air molecules or writing " "symbols on pieces of paper, are not patentable: no one can own them, they " "are free for everyone to use. But until those same liberties are extended " "to newer, less familiar methods (like particular standards for representing " "sounds via digital encoding), we who generate audio works must take care " "what format we use—and require our listeners to use." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h4> msgid "A way out: Ogg Vorbis format" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Ogg Vorbis is an alternative to MP3. It gets high sound quality, can " "compress down to a smaller size than MP3 while still sounding good (thus " "saving you time and bandwidth costs), and best of all, is designed to be " "completely free of patents." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "You won't sacrifice any technical quality by encoding your audio in Ogg " "Vorbis. The files sound fine, and most players know how to play them. But " "you will increase the total number of people who can listen to your tracks, " "and at the same time help the push for patent-free standards in distribution " "formats." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "More information <a href=\"https://xiph.org/about/\">about Xiph.org</a> (the " "organization that created Ogg Vorbis) and the importance of free " "distribution formats." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "The Free Software Foundation has produced a user-friendly <a " "href=\"https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/playogg/how\">guide to installing Ogg " "Vorbis support in Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X</a>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The <a href=\"https://xiph.org/vorbis/\">Ogg Vorbis home page</a> has all " "the information you need to both listen to and produce Vorbis-encoded " "files. The safest thing, for you and your listeners, would be to offer Ogg " "Vorbis files exclusively. But since there are still some players that can " "only handle MP3, and you don't want to lose audience, a first step is to " "offer both Ogg Vorbis and MP3, while explaining to your downloaders (perhaps " "by linking to this article) exactly why you support Ogg Vorbis." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "And with Ogg Vorbis, you'll even <em>gain</em> some audience. Here's how:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Up till now, the MP3 patent owners have been clever enough not to harass " "individual users with demands for payment. They know that would stimulate " "popular awareness of (and eventually opposition to) the patents. Instead, " "they go after the makers of products that implement the MP3 format. The " "victims of these shakedowns shrug wearily and pay up, viewing it as just " "another cost of doing business, which is then passed on invisibly to users. " "However, not everyone is in a position to pay: some of your listeners use " "free software programs to play audio files. Because this software is freely " "copied and downloaded, there is no practical way for either the authors or " "the users to pay a patent fee—that is, to pay for the right to use the " "mathematical facts that underly the MP3 format. As a result, these programs " "cannot legally implement MP3, even though the tracks the users want to " "listen to may themselves be perfectly free! Because of this situation, some " "distributors of the GNU/Linux computer operating system—which has " "millions of users worldwide—have been unable to include MP3 players in " "their software distributions." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Luckily, you don't have to require such users to engage in civil " "disobedience every time they want to listen to your works. By offering Ogg " "Vorbis, you ensure that no listeners have to get involved with a patented " "distribution format unless they choose to, and that your audio works will " "never be hampered by unforseen licensing requirements. Eventually, the " "growing acceptance of Ogg Vorbis as a standard, coupled with increasingly " "unpredictable behavior by some of the MP3 patent holders, may make it " "impractical to offer MP3 files at all. But even before that day comes, Ogg " "Vorbis remains the only portable, royalty-free audio format on the Internet, " "and it's worth a little extra effort to support." msgstr "" #. TRANSLATORS: Use space (SPC) as msgstr if you don't have notes. #. type: Content of: <div> msgid "*GNUN-SLOT: TRANSLATOR'S NOTES*" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a " "href=\"mailto:gnu@gnu.org\"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a " "href=\"/contact/\">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and " "other corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a " "href=\"mailto:webmasters@gnu.org\"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>." msgstr "" #. TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, #. replace it with the translation of these two: # #. We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality #. translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. #. Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard #. to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> # #. <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> # #. <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of #. our web pages, see <a #. href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations #. README</a>. #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "Please see the <a " "href=\"/server/standards/README.translations.html\">Translations README</a> " "for information on coordinating and contributing translations of this " "article." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "Copyright © 2007 Karl Fogel" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted " "worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice, and the " "copyright notice, are preserved." msgstr "" #. TRANSLATORS: Use space (SPC) as msgstr if you don't want credits. #. type: Content of: <div><div> msgid "*GNUN-SLOT: TRANSLATOR'S CREDITS*" msgstr "" #. timestamp start #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "Updated:" msgstr ""