[khaos974]

You might find this (re Apple, ALAC, FLAC, open source, licensing...) interesting in understanding why Apple provide no native FLAC support
 
 
chuck
 

Are you sure that integrating FLAC would be such a large issue due to the copyleft? To my knowledge, if you keep that piece of code distinct from the code of the main program, it wouldn't contaminate the the whole code. Besides there are already plenty of (proprietary code based) programs that encode and decode FLAC, wouldn't they be affected by the GPL license?

 

[Griffinhart]

Easier said than done; for something like foobar, where its FLAC playback capability can be added/removed via a component, that's easy. But iTunes isn't modular like foobar is, so if they stick FLAC playback capability in, they're pretty much having to integrate that capability into the entirety of the program.
 
 
Quote:

FLAC is free as in communism.  ALAC is free as in beer.

lol. You keep thinking that; meanwhile, I will continue to use awesome GPL-licensed software like the entire Cygwin suite (because Windows has a terrible dang CLI that needs to be taken out back and shot. Repeatedly) and Notepad++ (because Windows has terrible dang text editor that can't even be really called a "text editor" by the correct definition of the phrase).
 
-- Griffinhart
 

 

[grawk]

It's not about how it works for the users, it's how it works for the companies implementing the software. 

 

[Griffinhart]

There are DAPs that can do FLAC playback (Archos and Cowon brands come to mind) - what are those DAPs doing that iDevices/Zune aren't (or vice-versa)?
 
-- Griffinhart

 

[grawk]

Quote:

There are DAPs that can do FLAC playback (Archos and Cowon brands come to mind) - what are those DAPs doing that iDevices/Zune aren't (or vice-versa)?
 
-- Griffinhart

Publishing the source code to their entire device.

 

[Sylverant]

Quote:

There are DAPs that can do FLAC playback (Archos and Cowon brands come to mind) - what are those DAPs doing that iDevices/Zune aren't (or vice-versa)?
 
-- Griffinhart

Are there even any archos devices worth FLAC in soundquality though? The Archos 5 android looks like it would be amazing for storage and playing dvd vob's but I don't remember how good its soundquality was.

 

[Griffinhart]

Quote:

Publishing the source code to their entire device.

I'm calling BS; I have yet to see the source code for my Cowon J3.
 
-- Griffinhart

 

[xnor]

IIRC this topic is about audio bit depth and not DAPs, lossless formats, licensing or something like that..

 

[grawk]

Whether they've done it or not, that's the legal requirement.  And if microsoft or apple included flac support, and didn't include the source for everything, you know they'd get sued.
 
Quote:

I'm calling BS; I have yet to see the source code for my Cowon J3.
 
-- Griffinhart

 

 

[grawk]

Quote:

IIRC this topic is about audio bit depth and not DAPs, lossless formats, licensing or something like that..

But nothing new has been said about bit depth in over a year.  It's just rehashing old arguments.  At least this is a new argument.

 

[xnor]

Quote:

But nothing new has been said about bit depth in over a year. It's just rehashing old arguments.  At least this is a new argument.

Then so be it. No need to revive it with unrelated discussions. Instead start a new thread, right?

 

[grawk]

discussions happen where discussions happen.  As long as no one is breaking the terms of service, I don't see a problem letting things happen organically.

 

[WobblyGoblin]

GPL is poison? communism?

Communism requires force to exist. You're not forced to open source your code if your code supports FLAC, only if your FLAC support is derived from open source code, and you're not forced to use open source code.

Please, get a clue and stop spreading lies.

 

[grawk]

My bad, I thought the codec was GPL'd, but I guess not.  So I don't know why Apple chose not to do FLAC. 

 

[EddieE]

My guess would be the obvious - they have iTunes that most average consumers buy their music from - like any corporation they want to make the most money possible from that situation.
 
Creating their own lossless codec means one of two things for them - other manufacturers pay their license fees to play it back on their devices or the consumers have to keep buying their ipods to play their music, forever.
 
Pretty good racket.