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LAME Project

The LAME Project develops LAME, an MPEG Audio Layer III (MP3) encoder. LAME is licensed under the GNU LGPL and the project distributes it only as source code.

Licensing at a Glance

  • Open source

  1. LAME is described by the project as a high-quality MP3 encoder licensed under the LGPL.[1]

  2. The LAME source code is distributed under the GNU Library General Public License version 2, and source files allow use of version 2 or any later version.[2]

  3. LAME is only distributed in source-code form; binaries and GUI programs that use LAME are provided by third parties listed on the project's links page.[3]

  4. LAME may be used in commercial programs under the LGPL; the project recommends linking it as a separate library, acknowledging its use, and releasing any modifications back under the LGPL.[4]

  5. The decoding functions in LAME use an older mpglib engine that is under the GPL and may not be used by non-GPL programs without permission from the MPG123 project.[5]

  6. The project states that it releases only source code to avoid MP3 patent questions and that companies shipping LAME-based encoders intend to obtain the relevant patent licences themselves.[6]

Products

References

  1. LAME MP3 Encoder · lame.sourceforge.io · retrieved 2026-09-27
  2. LAME COPYING (GNU Library General Public License v2) · svn.code.sf.net · retrieved 2026-09-27
  3. LAME MP3 Encoder :: Software Downloads · lame.sourceforge.io · retrieved 2026-09-27
  4. LAME license.txt · lame.sourceforge.io · retrieved 2026-09-27
  5. LAME license.txt · lame.sourceforge.io · retrieved 2026-09-27
  6. LAME technical FAQ · lame.sourceforge.io · retrieved 2026-09-27
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