US-centricity of the Ogg problem

As far as I know (IANAL) submarine patents are problem mainly in the US.  
If rest of the world doesn't have so crippling patent law, it would be  
unfair to let negative effects of US law affect standard that is used  
internationally, to a great extent outside US jurisdiction.

I think it's entirely possible that in some countries/communities Ogg will  
become viable alternative, even if Microsoft and Apple ignore it -- for  
example in Poland Opera+Gecko already have nearly 40% of the market and  
are still gaining popularity (ranking.pl).

SHOULD requirement in the spec is needed to raise awareness of the codecs  
among authors who otherwise wouldn't even suspect that browsers may be  
capable of playing Vorbis/Theora.
OTOH SHOULD is not an absolute requirement, so it's not stopping anyone  
 from having spec-compliant implementation. If it doesn't, then what is the  
benefit of removing it, other than letting few corporations feel good  
about ignoring these codecs?

-- 
regards, Kornel Lesinski

Received on Tuesday, 11 December 2007 21:46:49 UTC