[theora] Theora patent question

[Shayne Wissler]

Here is a blog entry from 2007 discussing the potential "submarine
patent" problem as it related to Theora:

http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/2007/12/video-element-and-ogg-theora.html

Here's a more recent discussion that indicates that Apple's problem
with Theora is precisely from the issue I tried to underscore: that no
one has been sued over Theora precisely because it hasn't been
embraced by a large company yet, and there's a risk of submarine
patent if they do:

http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2009-June/020620.html

This is not "FUD", this is the fact of life for people who try to
write any kind of software nowadays.

Suppose Apple did adopt Theora, and the submarine came up (and
supposing one is indeed lurking, we should expect it to wait until
broad adoption). Then what happens to all of us small-time/non-profit
users? Right now we're OK, but after that, it seems we'd be screwed.


Shayne