Applications for FC4

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 15 November 2004 14:09, Kyrre Ness Sjobak wrote:
>man, 15.11.2004 kl. 19.10 skrev Michael A. Peters:
>> On 11/15/2004 07:12:46 AM, Kyrre Ness Sjobak wrote:
>> > Now M$ is including mp3
>>
>> Apple has included mp3 for a long time.
>> I have to wonder if iTunes is why MS suddenly felt they needed to
>> ...
>
>Windows Media player has included mp3 for longer than iTunes have
>existed.

I think so, but one never can know if Bill paid faunhofer(sp) the 5 
figure license fee to do so.  I mean WTF, its coffee money for 
redmond.  It could be that Bill is too big for faunhofer(sp) to sue.
I also found it a bit hilarious that the so called demo windows media 
files included in the windows distros have been found to have been 
processed by a pirate copy of soundforge? and carry the crackers 
signatures.  See the /. story a few days ago to clarify those 
details.

Around 5 years ago, some friends of mine wanted to put up a free music 
server featureing local talent (and there are indeed a few that bear 
listening to), and got rather disappointed when faunhofer initially 
wanted $25k for the license to just have mp3's encoded from any mp3 
workalike source available from their server.  It didn't make any 
difference to them if it wasn't encoded with one of their licensed 
encoders or not.  Several months of negotiations got it down a ways, 
but not enough to justify the startup to have anything but oggs on 
their listings.  It ran for a couple of years with rather mediocre 
success.  By mediocre, I don't think it ever paid for the hardware to 
do it.  I don't recall how much the typical cut would charge your 
card, but it wasn't much as it wasn't designed to be a gold mine, but 
to advertise local talent.
 
This is strike number one in the arguments about software patents.

IMO, ANY and yes I'm yelling, ANY file format that intends to be a 
standard should be absolutely free and clear of any patent or 
copyright riders.  mp3 fails that test in any sane court on the 
planet.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
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by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2004 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.