[whatwg] The truth about Nokias claims

On Dec 13, 2007 8:40 PM, Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:

>  * Convince one of the largest companies to distribute a royalty-free
>    codec, taking on the unknown liability, and make this widely known, to
>    attract patent trolls.

I don't think you meant it that way, but this almost sounds like a
straw-man.  I would not suggest the large companies would be willing
to take on the risk of a royalty-free codec without research of the
risk, either done by the W3C or perhaps as a communal patent
clearance.  We'd welcome and participate enthusiastically in either.

I've heard some credible legal opinions in private conversations over
the past few days of how this might proceed.

>  * Negotiate with the patent holders of a non-royalty-free codec to find a
>    way that their codec can be used royalty-free.

For the record, I'll say-- If MPEG unconditionally dropped all royalty
claims on MPEG2/MPEG4, I'd go home very happy ;-)  That's absurd and
meant to be humorous, but I also mean it.  It would put an end to all
this so called 'Ogg nonsense' immediately.  Heck, we might even join
MPEG.

Monty
Xiph.Org

Received on Thursday, 13 December 2007 19:31:50 UTC