[whatwg] Ogg content on the Web

[David Gerard]

On 12/12/2007, Geoffrey Sneddon <foolistbar at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On 12 Dec 2007, at 14:23, David Gerard wrote:

> > So far we have had zero patent trolls come calling. I wonder why
> > that is.

> Do you have enough money to pay a fine a similar size to what MS got
> last year? If you don't have enough money, they won't sue you. It
> isn't worth their time.


Not to mention "Patent Troll Sues Wikipedia" would be second only to
"Patent Troll Eats Cute Fluffy Kittens" for mediapathy. Mind you, the
people who hate Wikipedia *really hate* Wikipedia, and I'm amazed none
of them have even made noises in this direction, given the
ridiculously broad and vague software and business method patents that
exist in the US.

That said, we do actually go to considerable effort to do the right
thing because it's the right thing - we don't allow patent-encumbered
formats because they would severely reduce the reusability of our
content, and deliberately flouting assumed-valid US patents (as odious
as software patents are) would be unseemly.


- d.