Format of Choice for a Legal, Free, Audio-eBook?

audioAuthor asks: "Let's say I have a recorded audio-book (no music, just speech), which I want to share with the world. What format should I use to distribute it? Main requirements would be: 'Everyone is allowed to redistribute it without any restrictions" and "Usable as widely as possible'. I have been thinking of MP3, Ogg Vorbis and Speex. MP3 would be really nice, as it's usable almost everywhere, even without a computer, but it has licensing problems which I don't quite understand. Speex is free and designed for speech, but it's not widely supported at the moment. I think that Ogg Vorbis is currently better supported than Speex, and also free, but not designed for speech and would take more space to achieve same quality. So what do you say? Which one of these should I choose, or are there other formats to consider?"

Re:Why not all three?

[narrowhouse]

I agree with zhiwenchong, the people who make mp3 encoders are the ones who have to pay a license currently (how LAME gets around it is little complex, but not your problem in any case), not content creators so there is no reason not to make an mp3 version. If you have software to create ogg vorbis and speex files you might as well go ahead and do it for anyone who would prefer them. The speex file may save some bandwith and the ogg vorbis file just gives you that warm free software feeling. Hope your project goes well.