__/ [ Roy Schestowitz ] on Wednesday 31 January 2007 09:00 \__
> MP3 patent suit could affect hundreds of companies
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Alcatel-Lucent told a jury it is owed almost $2 billion for Microsoft
> | Corp.'s use of the standard technology for playing music and audio
> | files on a computer, a dispute that could affect valley firms...
> `----
>
> http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/070130/1410239.html?.v=1
...And so it became a reality after all. Everybody owes /BIG/ money, except
Linux. Soon enough, the corporate world will yell out about the madness of
software patents. In fact, remember Steve Jobs' open letter? That which
protested against DRM? Have a look...
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-micro23feb23,1,3744655.story
"A San Diego jury on Thursday told Microsoft Corp. to pay $1.52 billion for
infringing patents underpinning the world's most popular digital music
standard, known as MP3. The verdict, one of the largest patent awards on
record, could open other technology companies to massive liability.
Virtually every portable digital music player uses MP3 technology to read
music files, including Apple Inc.'s iPod."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Let's see how long it takes for companies to react. Better yet, how long
before they throw away DRM /and/ move to an open and royalty-free format
such as Ogg Vorbis. Open Source got it right after all... and having no MP3
support 'out of the box' in Linux gave Linux users the last laugh.
--
~~ Best wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | $> wget -r -erobots=off http://www.*
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