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"A patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other “open source” codecs now." That's kind of scary.
by alec 16y ago
"A patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other “open source” codecs now."
That's kind of scary.
- papachito 16y agoActually, theora devs have been asking for the patent pool for a long time so they can work around patents once and for all http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1309412 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1309412 So this is excellent news for Theora, as it could be an end to the "submarine patent" FUD.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- nirmal 16y agoThat's one interpretation. Another is that some other entity is gathering patents to use against Theora.
- alec 16y agoSeems reasonable to assume it's the big player in video patents, MPEG LA. Apple has contributed patents to their pool.
- DrSprout 16y agoIf this is legit, Apple almost certainly owns some of the patents involved, even if they're not the instigator.
- lallysingh 16y agoWhen I read Steve's response, I didn't see anything implying that Apple would be involved. Even if they have some patents, they don't have to enforce them.
- snth 16y agoHe didn't say Apple was assembling this patent pool.
- Indyan 16y agoBut presumably, Apple is going to be a part of it. Remember that Apple does have stake in MPEG-LA.
- rictic 16y agoAs mentioned above, Apple has one patent out of hundreds in the H.264 pool, and one patent in MPEG-4 Systems Pool. Maybe they'll be a part of it and maybe they won't, but it doesn't sound like they're big players in the video patent space.
- davidw 16y agoIs it real? I am no fan of Apple or Jobs, but it almost sounds too evil. Edit: in reply to a "tweet" of mine, he posted the headers: http://hugoroy.eu/jobs-os.php http://hugoroy.eu/jobs-os.php It's really hard to believe they'd be such arrogant jerks as to go after something open source like that.
- chc 16y agoThis isn't "Apple" or "Jobs" going after anyone. Jobs is stating that members of MPEG-LA plan to do so. If Steve Jobs mentioning that other people plan to sue is an example of Jobs being "evil," then logically you must be evil too since you have also mentioned the potential lawsuit.
- stingraycharles 16y agoAnd on top of that, I'm pretty sure webkit infringes at least some patents too, which is used as an example of Apple supporting and contributing to open source. So he's using double standards again.
- ovi256 16y agoDo you have any proof that the "arrogant jerks" at Apple go after Theora themselves ? Steve Jobs did not state it anywhere. Way to get worked up over the wrong guys.
- riferguson 16y agoPresumably it would be the holders of the putatively infringed patents that would be assembling the "pool". I don't think Apple is in the Video Codec patent-holding business. As a major licensee of H.264, you'd have to presume Apple be in a position to know if someone else was rounding up the usual suspects.
- vetinari 16y agoApple is not only licensee, but also licensor. Every time you license H.264 (or something other from MPEG-4 pool), a cut goes to Apple (also to Microsoft and Nokia).
- riferguson 16y agoI stand corrected. Apple has one patent in the H.264 pool, US 7292636, and one in the MPEG-4 Systems pool, US 6134243. I have no idea if either of these would be relevant to Theora. For what it's worth, there are hundreds of patents in the total MPEG-LA pool.
- kierank 16y agoMPEG-4 Systems is not offered any more (since it's effectively dead).
- samps 16y ago> For what it's worth, there are hundreds of patents in the total MPEG-LA pool. Furthermore, it's not clear what Apple would stand to gain by enforcing its two patents that may or may not be relevant to Theora. Maybe I'm wrong, but media patent enforcement doesn't seem to be one of Apple's core businesses (HTC lawsuit notwithstanding). There are plenty of other companies, though, that likely have a vested interest in protecting their much-larger video patent portfolios. I think it would be wrong to assume at this point that Apple is instigating patent litigation against Theora. Occam's razor would encourage the view that Apple knows the people who want to take down Theora and is rationally fearful of them.
- 10ren 16y agoGoogle purchased the creators (On2 Technologies) of the basis (VP3) of Theora. http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/04/google-will-open-source-on2-vp8-codec.html http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/04/google-will-open-so... Now, just because you create something doesn't mean it doesn't infringe on someone's patent (read: it could infringe a patent). However, google presumably did some serious due-diligence before forking over their measly $133M, especially on the patent position. That doesn't make mean they're right, but it does mean that they think the patent position is pretty strong. Of course, they would have focused on VP8, the one they bought, not Theora's VP3 (and which might infringe due to subsequent open-source additions.) Google might open source VP8 on May 19-20 http://www.reelseo.com/html5-vp8-google/ http://www.reelseo.com/html5-vp8-google/
- CamperBob 16y agoAt which point Google gets to find out what patents VP8 infringes. Ballsy move.