[Vorbis] Sisvel's claim on MP3

[Ian Malone]

JJ Liu wrote:
> Dear all,
>  I just know that Sisvel (http://www.sisvel.com) claims patent on MP3 and

They are acting as licensing agents (read: extortion).

 From one of their websites <http://www.sisvel.it/newsR.asp?id=16>:
"About SISVEL S.p.A. SISVEL has been in the business of licensing
electronics patents for over 20 years and manages both its own patents
and third parties’ patents."
The whole story is interesting and not a little shocking.

> starting charging fee on MP3 encoding/decoding (http://www.audiompeg.com). I
> take a look on its patent claims and it seems that they are very board.

They are very bored.  Patent titles are always as broad as they can get
away with, the details are often the important part.

>  I wonder if vorbis would be affected by them.

Again, IANAL.  Are there any new patents here, or are they simply
agressively pursuing old mp3 ones?

I find this story from about three years ago quite interesting:
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/07/23/no_more_jpegs_iso/>.
If the mp3 patent situation becomes more convoluted maybe it will
force ISO to abandon it.

I think this will do nothing but pressure more manufacturers into
abandoning mp3, and hopefully show up the sillyness of software
patents a bit more.  Who do you license mp3 from now then?  Thomson?
These Sisvel people?  What guarantee do you have that someone won't
turn up tomorrow and demand more money?  It is no different from
using Vorbis, except that you are pledging your support to the whole
somewhat rickety structure.

-- 
imalone