Freedb: Encyclopedia II - Freedb - Motivation

Freedb - Motivation

The original software behind CDDB was released under the GNU General Public License, and many people submitted CD information without charging anything, thinking the service would also remain free. The license was later changed however, and some programmers complained that the new licence included certain terms that threatened them in a way they couldn't accept: if one wanted to access CDDB, one was not allowed to access any other CDDB-like database (such as freedb), and any programs using a CDDB lookup had to display a CDDB logo while performing the lookup.

In March 2001, CDDB, now owned by Gracenote, banned all unlicensed applications from accessing their database. New licenses for CDDB1 (the original version of CDDB) were not available anymore, as they wanted to force programmers to switch to CDDB2 (a new version incompatible with CDDB1 and hence with freedb).

The licence change motivated the freedb project, which is intended to remain free.

An alternative project that aims to enhance CDDB or freedb beyond a mere database of CDs is called MusicBrainz. A commercial alternative is All Media Guide's LASSO service which is linked to the All Music Guide database.

freedb is used primarily by media player, cataloguer and CD ripper software.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Motivation", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki