[vorbis-dev] [fwd] liked your article at http://xiph.org/about.html (from: mlewis@webnoize.com)

[Monty]

----- Forwarded message from Mark Lewis <mlewis at webnoize.com> -----

Delivery-Date: Tue Nov 21 10:15:55 2000
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 10:07:15 -0800
From: Mark Lewis <mlewis at webnoize.com>
Reply-To: mlewis at webnoize.com
Organization: Webnoize News
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (Win98; U)
To: monty at xiph.org
Subject: liked your article at http://xiph.org/about.html

here's an article about the FAAC shut-down.

mark lewis
news editor
news.webnoize.com
626-398-1162
-----

November 21, 2000
       technology . formats

       Pressured by Dolby, Open-Source Audio Developer Takes
       Down Software
       by Mark Lewis

       An open-source audio movement lost a battle last week against
       the audio technology industry when a non-commercial developer
       stopped distributing compression software that Dolby and others
       claimed infringed on their patents. But the developer is still
       distributing the source code so that programmers can improve
       the technology.

       Since at least December 1999, Dutch software developer Menno
       Bakker distributed source code and software that encodes and
       decodes audio files using Advanced Audio Coding (AAC). AAC
       is a high-quality audio compression technology whose patents
       are owned by Dolby Laboratories, AT&T Laboratories,
       Fraunhofer Institute and Sony Corp. Like popular MP3 encoders,
       Bakker's software compressed music into small files, but the
       AAC technology made them even smaller and of better quality
       than MP3 files. At the heart of Bakker's software was an
       open-source version of AAC technology, which he called
       Freeware AAC (FAAC).

       Dolby Laboratory's licensing corporation sent Bakker a letter
last
       week telling him to stop distributing the software through his
and
       other web sites because he had not licensed AAC from the four
       developer companies. Dolby licensing administrator Christina
       Bonner told Bakker in the letter that he could continue to offer
the
       software if he purchased a license, and Dolby would need to
       "discuss [his] business plan in order to discuss suitable
licensing
       terms."

       According to the AAC Patent License Agreement, applicants
       must pay an administrative fee of $10,000, which does not
       guarantee they will get a license. Developers making consumer
       software applications that encode and decode music with AAC
       must pay $1.35 for every piece of software they distribute, up to

       100,000 units; fees are lower for more units sold. If developers
       prefer, they can pay 1% of their gross revenues earned on the
       licensed products. Thirty-five companies have licensed AAC,
       according to Bonner.

       After Bakker received Dolby's letter, he stopped distributing the

       free software. But he is still offering the code so programmers
       can understand how the technology works and improve it.

       "I think that if people invented something they have the right to

       expect some money from others using their ideas," emailed
       Bakker, a student at the University of Twente in Holland. "The
       license, however, is far too expensive for anyone to just go
       experimenting legally with AAC. I just wanted to experiment, and
I
       think FAAC wasn't any competition yet for the Fraunhofer/Dolby
       implementation."

       Many open-source programmers contend that software and
       technology improve more quickly when code and inventions can
       be worked on by everyone without paying for licenses; they argue
       that a final commercial implementation can be proprietary,
       allowing those with the best real-world products to earn money.
       But for labs that patent genetic sequences and silicon
       chip-makers that use encryption to keep reverse-engineers from
       looking at the code in their circuits, proprietary information is
their
       key competitive advantage.

       FAAC solved an interoperability problem associated with Dolby's
       AAC, said open-source developer Jack Moffitt, who helped
       create a royalty-free audio codec called Ogg Vorbis. Certain
       licensing terms behind Dolby's AAC require licensees to create
       encrypted files. Thus, even though two companies both use AAC,
       one company's software player won't necessarily play files
       created using the other company's encoder.

       According to the AAC Licensing Agreement, two companies can
       reach a private agreement to make their software compatible.

       But Dolby may prevent AAC from becoming an industry standard
       if it requires content and other technology companies to
negotiate
       compatibility. "[That] just fosters everything that's wrong about

       media right now," Moffitt said.

       AAC encoding is used in files from Universal Music Group, BMG
       Entertainment and Liquid Audio, but because their file formats
       use different encryption systems, the files may not be compatible

       with various software and hardware players.

       "We aren't seeking to adopt the plain text MP3 model of
       interoperability," emailed Dolby's Bonner. Formats using AAC
       "are interoperable to the extent that their 'owner/operators'
wish
       them to be," Bonner stated.

       Freeware AAC is supposed to create "generic" AAC technology
       that does away with those compatibility problems, as long as
files
       aren't encrypted. Still, it's unlikely that any company could
produce
       commercial software or hardware using Freeware AAC without
       the threat of a lawsuit from Dolby's licensing arm.

       That threat is the reason Bakker has stopped distributing the
       FAAC software -- but not the back-end code. He's not the only
       independent developer working that way. Last summer, files
       encoded with LAME, an improved MP3 encoder based on
       advanced Fraunhofer patents, started to appear on the 'Net.
       LAME stands for "LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder," because
       developers release only source code, not a software application
       using the code, on the 'Net.

       Ogg Vorbis developers, on the other hand, distribute their
       encoder/decoder software freely because they claim their
       technology doesn't infringe on anyone else's patents. Software
       players such as Sonique and XMMS now support Vorbis; a future
       version of Iomega's new HipZip portable music player is
       expected to play Vorbis files, Moffitt said.

       As open-source activity continues, Bakker isn't daunted by
       Dolby's move to protect its patents. He wants to press on with
his
       experiments by developing another audio codec -- though this
       next one might not be open-source or freeware, he said. "I want
to
       make good use of the knowledge I have obtained while
       developing FAAC."

----- End forwarded message -----

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