Mary Humphreys and Anahata

The Ogg Vorbis Format

Ogg Vorbis is a completely open, patent-free, professional audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open Source.

In other words, it's like MP3 but has none of the patent infringement controversy that surrounds the software for making MP3s. It will also always remain free of DRM copy protection nonsense. As it happens, Ogg also often sounds better than MP3 for the same file size (or makes smaller files for the same quality). Ogg is popular with Linux users but many Windows sound players such as later versions of Winamp or the excellent Foobar2000 can already play Ogg files too - see the Ogg Vorbis Site for details. Windows users with older versions of Winamp will find This Tutorial useful for installing an OGG plugin.