[theora] HTML 5 drops open-source video codec

[Gregory Maxwell]

On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 1:12 PM, Shayne Wissler<wissler at gmail.com> wrote:
> Has anyone considered that maybe Apple is right, and that in drawing
> too much attention to ogg/Theora you are asking for a patent suit? I
[snip]

Lawsuit is always at least a theoretical risk. There is nothing that
makes it go away completely.

Theora is intended to be unencumbered. People have worked hard to make
it so. They'll continue to do so.

Yes, there would be less risk of an attack on Theora if few to no one
used it. This would, however, defeat the purpose of Theora.

Xiph exists so that people who author things don't have to pay or ask
for permission form third parties for the privileged of reaching the
public. This can only be achieved if the formats are widely adopted,
their existence alone is insufficient.

> yourself isn't by technically following the letter of the law, it's
> the "mutually assured destruction" tactic of having a huge patent
> portfolio so if you get sued you can likely counter-sue.

Completely worthless against non-practicing entities (patent trolls)
which are the source of the lions-share of the actual lawsuits in this
space. You can't counter sue for patent infringement against a company
that does little more than file patent lawsuits. Even real companies
form patent troll shell companies (such as Lucent's "Multimedia patent
trust") in order to do their dirty work.