[MEncoder-users] Patent free codec

[Raphael]

Rich Felker wrote:

>On Mon, Aug 22, 2005 at 04:10:15PM +0100, Raphael wrote:
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>>But the thing is that there isn't actually any disagreement as far as I 
>>can tell.
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>Yes there is.
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>>Theora people say that the company that held the patents has given them 
>>rights to use them for free.
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>I agree to this. However there are a lot more relevant patents than
>On2's bullshit, which are all definitely trivial and invalid.
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>>Mplayer people say that in general in the US you will never truely know 
>>if you are safe from being sued due to all the things they describe and 
>>most people agree with.
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>This answer comes out of liability concerns, not actual belief. If we
>name any particular patent and indicate our awareness of it, many
>people believe that increases our liability for using codecs that
>"infringe" on it. My view is that these patents are invalid by
>obviousness and prior art, but that will not protect you in court, so
>I also shy away from naming particular patents. Suffice it to say,
>there is more stuff patented than you could ever possibly imagine, and
>I have seen lists of patents, several of which definitely would cover
>VP3 if they were valid. You can search the MPlayer list archives if
>you want to see my list of patents.
>
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I finally understand your opinion :) Thanks for sticking with it long 
enough for the penny to drop. My personal opinion, for what it is worth 
(i.e. not much), is that there are many mechanisms by which a wealthy 
company can destroy the livelihood of a small company or individual in 
the US. Aggressive and unreasonable patent infringement law suits is 
just one category. As with most things in life, the proof of the pudding 
is in the eating and everyone has to make their own valuation of risk. 
It would seem reasonable also to classify some things as being less 
risky patentwise than others on the basis of who appears to hold the 
patents and whose interest is served by enforcing them. And while we are 
talking about money and politics don't forget that a very strong force 
pushing the wide availability of free video players is pornography. It 
would be a disaster for the porn industry if everyone had to pay to 
watch their "try it for free" video clips.

Raphael