Patent issues (Was: Re: [vorbis] Winamp5)

[Linus Walleij]

ons 2003-12-17 klockan 07.19 skrev noprivacy at earthlink.net:

> but unfortunately due to Vorbis' uncertain legal status,
> AOL had it removed from the package.  Xiph can claim all they want that it's
> patent free, but that just aint good enough enough for a major company who
> could end up being a target for a major patent infringement lawsuit..  They
> need something with a bit more legal certainty.

Now I've heard this kind of claims over and over again, and yet I have
failed to ever see a patent lawer issue something like a statement
that a product certainly *does not* include patented technology. Why
is vorbis expected to do this when Fraunhofer, RealMedia, Microsoft
etc does not?

It sounds a bit like telling everyone in your neighborhood to hand in
papers with statements like "if there was a burglary around here now 
or in the future, I didn't do it".

What good is that?

What I see is people from major media corporations claiming possible
patent infringement by Xiph.org just because they know Xiph cannot
afford to contract full-time lawyers solely to handle patent issues.
That is FUD, plain FUD and nothing but FUD.

Luckily companies in Asia don't give a damn about this and ship
their Ogg-capable devices anyway.

Well. Much adoo about nothing.

Linus

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