[whatwg] The truth about Nokias claims

[xiphmont at xiph.org]

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