[ale] The world just got screwed....

[Mike Lockhart]

I can agree with that.  They do have a legitimate and rightful claim on
the format which I have no problem with. The only problem I see with it
though is that mp3 has become such an entrenched standard that it will
be extremely hard to get licensing fee's from people.  Additionally, I
think they should have just stuck with licensing the encoder.  Think of
all the systems and applications out there currently that use mp3
decoding.  



On Tue, 2002-08-27 at 16:34, Michael Hirsch wrote:
> On Tue, 2002-08-27 at 16:33, Mike Lockhart wrote:
> > If anyone hasn't already seen it, immediately read this article:
> > 
> > "New MP3 License Terms Demand $0.75 Per Decoder"
> > http://slashdot.org/articles/02/08/27/1626241.shtml?tid=155
> > 
> > Maybe this is the conspiracy theorist coming out in me, but I have a
> > funny feeling that RIAA had a lot to do with this.  Redhat has already
> > removed ALL mp3 players/encoders from the Rawhide tree.  
> 
> Thompson labs has been threatening to do this for a couple of years. 
> Their claims on mp3 decoding are a bit shakey, so they started by
> charging for the encoding which was pretty legitimate.  Now that that is
> well established they are going after decoders.
> 
> IMO, the mp3 encoder is as valid an invention as any piece of hardware. 
> If any software should be patentable, the mp3 encoder is a good
> example.  It is not one of thos obvious things like XOR cursor or
> one-click shopping.
> 
> The decoder I am less certain about, and from what I've heard their
> patent is not as clearly applicable in that case.
> 
> > On the upside, this will be a great boost for the Ogg format.
> 
> Yes indeed.
> 
> Michael
> 
-- 

================================
Michael Lockhart - PHP Developer
Intercosmos Media Group
mailto:mlockhart at intercosmos.com
http://orbital.intercosmos.net
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