Patente toeten Freien Audiostandard

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

Die Ogg-Vorbis-Entwickler hatten eine voellig andere freie Alternative zu
MP3 u.a. neu entwickelt, aber es scheint, dass sie trotzdem an den allzu
breiten Patentanspruechen der Platzhirsche gescheitert sind.

Derweil wurde ein Entwickler freier Software von der Firma Lake Inc mit
Prozessen bedroht und aufgefordert, eine ebenso eigenstaendige Entwicklung
vom Netz zu nehmen.  Lake hat die einschlaegige Trivialerfindung auch in
Europa zum Patent angemeldet.

Die neueste SuSE-Serverversion kann Truetype-Fonts nur sehr haesslich
auf dem Bildschirm darstellen, weil einige Firmenkunden angesichts der
Truetype-Patente kalte Fuesse bekamen.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: fermigier <sf@fermigier.com>
Subject: [Patents] Pressured by Dolby,
     Open-Source Audio Developer Takes Down Software
To: patents@eurolinux.org

Another example of an Open Source (/ free software :) project shut down
due to a patents threat:

http://www.xiph.org/archives/vorbis-dev/200011/0286.html

"An open-source audio movement lost a battle last week against the audio
technology industry when a non-commercial developer stopped distributing
compression software that Dolby and others claimed infringed on their
patents. But the developer is still distributing the source code so that
programmers can improve he technology. [???]"

"According to the AAC Patent License Agreement, applicants must pay an
administrative fee of $10,000, which does not guarantee they will get a
license. Developers making consumer software applications that encode and
decode music with AAC ust pay $1.35 for every piece of software they
distribute, up to 100,000 units; fees are lower for more units sold."

"But Dolby may prevent AAC from becoming an industry standard if it
requires content and other technology companies to negotiate compatibility.
"[That] just fosters everything that's wrong about media right now,"
Moffitt said.  AAC encoding is used in files from Universal Music Group,
BMG Entertainment and Liquid Audio, but because their file formats use
different encryption systems, the files may not be compatible with various
software and hardware players."

Bottom line:

1) software patents harm open source projects;

2) software patents harm interoperability;

	S.

-- 
Stéfane Fermigier, Tel: 06 63 04 12 77 (mobile).
EuroZopeCon Amsterdam 2001, january 23-24: http://www.eurozope.org/
"Web servers are the printing presses of the Internet age."
Roy T. Fielding, core Apache developper.

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