Thomson Multimedia, who license the MP3 format have confirmed that software players are not under threat, and can remain free.

The disappearance of a specific opt-out for software from Thomson's licensing page caused great alarm earlier this week. Thomson's licensing page had indeed changed, and an opt-out of free decoders had vanished.

"Thomson has never charged a per unit royalty for freely distributed software decoders. For commercially sold decoders - primarily hardware mp3 players - the per-unit royalty has always been in place since the beginning of the program," a spokesman said.

"Therefore, there is no change in our licensing policy and we continue to believe that the royalty fees of 75 cents per mp3 player (on average selling over $200 dollars) has no measurable impact on the consumer experience."

A Thomson spokesman told NewsForge's Robin Miller that it was a ruse by Ogg Vorbis advocates to get publicity.®