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The licensing program for MP3-related patents has been terminated

iis.fraunhofer.de

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Re: The licensing program for MP3-related patents has been terminated

#241

Post by bigbugbag »

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #183
notaplumber wrote: post #11

Recognizing this adds legitimacy to software patents. Don't. There have been free and open source MP3 decoders for many years now.

But MP3 is what made it possible to share music on the Internet and to play music off of iPod-like music players. Shouldn't the inventors benefit from their work? Don't algorithmicists deserve the same protections that say electrical engineers do?

It's not mp3 that made it possible to share music on the internet but people who did not care for the business model of the music industry. By the time ipod were out mp3 was outdated and obsolete for a while but was still the most used format for several reasons (format of choice of the pirates, cheaper to make hardware decoder, lack of success of mp3pro and other proprietary successors, reluctancy to adopt free and open format).

Re: The licensing program for MP3-related patents has been terminated

#242

Post by floatboth »

developer2 wrote: post #205
floatboth wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, PNG instantly took over as the lossless non-animated format, but Animated PNG is still not widely supported (Firefox only IIRC?) Mostly the "auto-playing animations without audio" stuff is moving to videos, e.g. https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2016/07/autoplay

Wow. I remember the initial hype for animated PNGs, meant to replace animated GIFs. We all expected it to happen in a matter of a few months, and that must have been nearly a decade ago now? It took 2-3 years before I simply gave up on checking to see if support had rolled out. To this day I have never seen an animated PNG in action. Animated GIFs continue to reign as king. Image hosts' demand to reduce outbound band…

APNG was invented by Mozilla and not standardized with a "legit" organization (IETF/W3C). I guess Chrome/Safari/IE were reluctant to adopt a not-really-standard. Safari eventually did though, and now finally it's in Chrome beta.

Yeah "gifv" is what I mentioned, and it's the way forward. The bandwidth used by GIFs made from movie clips is ridiculous! APNG wouldn't be that much better since it's also lossless. But APNG will be nice for animations that have to be lossless.

Re: The licensing program for MP3-related patents has been terminated

#243

Post by lloeki »

floatboth wrote: post #101
yuhong wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PNG ended up being supported better than Vorbis/Opus though.

Sure, PNG instantly took over as the lossless non-animated format, but Animated PNG is still not widely supported (Firefox only IIRC?) Mostly the "auto-playing animations without audio" stuff is moving to videos, e.g. https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2016/07/autoplay

APNG works fine here on Safari, and it seems to be supported by everyone but IE/Edge and (strangely) the new Opera w/ Blink, but that may be because Chrome apparently added support starting with 59 in March?

Easy test: do you see the ball bouncing here? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APNG

Re: The licensing program for MP3-related patents has been terminated

#244

Post by geon »

welder wrote: post #20
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you don't believe in software patents?

Software patents are bullshit. A patent on an invention that many people would easily develop independently of one another should not, it is argued, be granted since this impedes development. [1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent#Obviousness

The crankshaft used to be patented. James Watt had to design around the obvious implementation when building his steam engines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_and_planet_gear

Re: The licensing program for MP3-related patents has been terminated

#245

Post by bogositosius »

amelius wrote: post #229
bogositosius wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when is a patent required to make money off software?

That's not making money off software. That's making money off software AND business efforts.

And you want to make money off software AND patent efforts.

So, again, why do you think the patent is the driving factor to making money off software?

Re: The licensing program for MP3-related patents has been terminated

#246

Post by Razengan »

alerighi wrote: post #83
throwaway91111 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you "support a format"? AFAIK nothing will convince Apple to release music in a better (patent-free) codec, much less convince others to dump DRM.

So don't buy music from Apple, or from anyone else that sells it in non-free formats

iTunes was one of the first online music stores to go DRM free, and even now I believe most of it is, but I prefer Apple Music for the much wider variety and greater convenience, especially for Japanese music.

Re: The licensing program for MP3-related patents has been terminated

#247

Post by arximboldi »

sbov wrote: post #108
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> someone has to fight the good fight That's a noble, if politically naïve, attitude. Societies, like Congress, have a limited bandwidth for problem solving. The way we prioritize what gets solved and what doesn't, as well as how to solve it, is "politics". (This is more a matter of definition than quibbling.) There are various political institutions, and individuals have varying degrees of influence over them, depen…

There's a wide range here. Complaining on a message board where most people agree with you is basically zero effort. Devoting your life's work to it is a ton of effort. There is a middle ground here. My general thought is: you should, on a regular basis, feel at least a little bit of pain due to your opinions. If you don't then your opinion is probably worthless to society.

> My general thought is: you should, on a regular basis, feel at least a little bit of pain due to your opinions. If you don't then your opinion is probably worthless to society.

I've reread this sentence a few times... and it is actually quite deeper that it first seemed on a more superficial read. Thanks a lot for your comment.

Re: The licensing program for MP3-related patents has been terminated

#248

Post by kingosticks »

Freak_NL wrote: post #236
throwaway91111 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you suggest I don't listen to music, or are you prepared with an alternative to apple?

Why do you need Apple to listen to music? There is radio (online and in the ether), there are alternative platforms (e.g., Bandcamp), concerts and other live venues, (second hand) physical media (e.g., CDs or vinyl), open access music, etcetera. On top of all that there is the big middle finger of 'piracy' if you are so inclined. For many this is a morally acceptable alternative to a rotten system, for others it may…

I'd love to support bandcamp but then they removed their API.

Re: The licensing program for MP3-related patents has been terminated

#249

Post by keldaris »

PatentTroll wrote: post #85
magila wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software is already covered by copyright. Granting it parent protection as well allows software companies to double dip in a way that no other industry can.

Well, copyright covers an implementation of software, but a clean-room rewrite can get around a copyright of software. In that way, no, copyright is not a real way to protect software.

By prohibiting a clean-room rewrite you're skirting dangerously close to attempting to prohibit independent reinvention. That is, without hyperbole, one of the most abhorrent ideas I've ever seen.

Thankfully, software patents are unenforcable in most of the world and willfully ignored by large parts of it.

Re: The licensing program for MP3-related patents has been terminated

#250

Post by rawfan »

TD-Linux wrote: post #32
notaplumber wrote: post #11

Recognizing this adds legitimacy to software patents. Don't. There have been free and open source MP3 decoders for many years now.

Not believing in software patents is unlikely to change a court's mind. Instead, support formats that are royalty free from the start - Vorbis, Opus, and Codec2, for example.

Software patents are banned in Europe, so the whole shebang is really only relevant in the US. While the patent offices in Europe allowed software concepts to be patented, these patents are not enforcable.
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