[whatwg] The truth about Nokias claims

[Shannon]

This is an except from an MPEG-LA press release:

"Owners of patents or patent applications determined by MPEG LA’s patent 
experts to be essential to the H.264/AVC standard (“standard”) include 
Columbia University, Electronics and Telecommunications Research 
Institute of Korea (ETRI), France Télécom, Fujitsu, IBM, Matsushita, 
Mitsubishi, **Microsoft**, Motorola, **Nokia**, Philips, Polycom, Robert 
Bosch GmbH, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Thomson, Toshiba, and Victor Company 
of Japan (JVC)."

So lets review the three companies loudly objecting to OGG, 
misrepresenting its status and continuing to fuel this debate:

Apple: Has heavy investment in H.264, AAC and DRM via iTunes. Known for 
proprietry hardware lock-in.
Microsoft: Heavy investment in WMV and DRM. 'Essential patent holder' in 
H.264. Major shareholder in Apple. Known for proprietry browser and OS 
lock-in and standards disruption.
Nokia: 'Essential patent holder' and heavy invester in H.264. Argued for 
software patents in EU.

Stop believing their lies! Don't you think it's weird that Nokia is 
complaining about patents while simultaneous holding numerous video 
related ones? OGG/Vorbis/Theora are open and as safe as codecs can get. 
Its patent risks are practically non-existent. It has no licensing fees. 
It is easy to implement across all major (and most minor) platforms. It 
is the format of choice - unless you're Nokia, Apple or Microsoft.

Finally, nobody has mentioned that the licensing terms on H.264/AVC 
state that in about 8 years from now ALL internet H.264 content and 
software becomes licensable. Sites will have to pay to use it. It is NOT 
FREE, just 'on hold' until adoption becomes widespread and enforcement 
more practical. When that happens guess who makes billions? Nokia and 
Microsoft.

These companies have no right to be distrupting this list and modifying 
the standard to their whims. Their business interests are of no interest 
here. This is a PUBLIC standard, not a proprietry one.

Put the OGG reference back in the HTML5 draft, exactly as it was, as it 
was originally agreed, as many have requested - AS IS APPROPRIATE!

Shannon
shannon at arc.net.au