4 ms·

How did we end up at this point? It's like a self-enforced ceiling on evolution of technology. The tar pit gets more tarry every year.

by mtkd 9y ago

pavlov 9y ago
Fortunately patents are fairly short-lived (at least compared to copyright). A lot of the worst software patents were granted in the '90s and early 2000s and are reaching their 20-year expiration date.
- zip1234 9y ago
  Have a look at recent patents for Facebook. http://stks.freshpatents.com/Facebook-Inc-nm1.php http://stks.freshpatents.com/Facebook-Inc-nm1.php A patent for 'user status update suggestions' for example. Yuck.
- kelnos 9y ago
  Does this actually help that much, though? I imagine many of the important patentable improvements end up being obsolete by the time the patents expire.
  - rayiner 9y ago
    The MPEG-2 patents are all expired, and it's still widely used (all terrestrial and most cable TV). It higher bitrates MPEG-2 is still very reasonable.
    - kelnos 9y ago
      Sure, but I expect that's more because no one wants to tell everyone their TVs that they were forced to buy in the mid-2000s are obsolete and they must buy a new MPEG-4 (or whatever) capable TV in order to keep watching broadcast television. (Of course, cable networks can do whatever they want; they can just build new decoder boxes if it's worth the expense to them). Terrestrial broadcast standards have to move slowly. Internet-based streaming and storage can move much faster, and it's supremely beneficial to be able to do so. MPEG-2's now-expired patent portfolio isn't too useful for that, and hasn't been for quite a while now.
- floatboth 9y ago
  20 years is still an eternity for tech that improves every day.
rayiner 9y ago
The "evolution of technology" requires dollars. Gobs of them. R&D thus must have a monetization model. The monetization model used by AV1 didn't exist until relatively recently, but MPEG's patent-based monetization model worked just fine for two decades before that. For decades, companies like Sony, Sharp, NTT, etc., bankrolled that R&D by licensing patents to the technology, and selling devices incorporating the technology. Today, the Internet enables new monetization models. Companies like Apple and Google can directly monetize video content through iTunes and Google Play (or indirectly through Youtube). They can use that to bankroll their investment in new video codecs.

How did we end up at this point? It's like a self-enforced ceiling on evolution of technology. The tar pit gets more tarry every year.

by mtkd 9y ago

How did we end up at this point? It's like a self-enforced ceiling on evolution of technology. The tar pit gets more tarry every year.

pavlov 9y ago

Fortunately patents are fairly short-lived (at least compared to copyright). A lot of the worst software patents were granted in the '90s and early 2000s and are reaching their 20-year expiration date.

zip1234 9y ago
Have a look at recent patents for Facebook. http://stks.freshpatents.com/Facebook-Inc-nm1.php http://stks.freshpatents.com/Facebook-Inc-nm1.php A patent for 'user status update suggestions' for example. Yuck.
kelnos 9y ago
Does this actually help that much, though? I imagine many of the important patentable improvements end up being obsolete by the time the patents expire.
- rayiner 9y ago
  The MPEG-2 patents are all expired, and it's still widely used (all terrestrial and most cable TV). It higher bitrates MPEG-2 is still very reasonable.
  - kelnos 9y ago
    Sure, but I expect that's more because no one wants to tell everyone their TVs that they were forced to buy in the mid-2000s are obsolete and they must buy a new MPEG-4 (or whatever) capable TV in order to keep watching broadcast television. (Of course, cable networks can do whatever they want; they can just build new decoder boxes if it's worth the expense to them). Terrestrial broadcast standards have to move slowly. Internet-based streaming and storage can move much faster, and it's supremely beneficial to be able to do so. MPEG-2's now-expired patent portfolio isn't too useful for that, and hasn't been for quite a while now.
floatboth 9y ago
20 years is still an eternity for tech that improves every day.

rayiner 9y ago

The "evolution of technology" requires dollars. Gobs of them. R&D thus must have a monetization model. The monetization model used by AV1 didn't exist until relatively recently, but MPEG's patent-based monetization model worked just fine for two decades before that. For decades, companies like Sony, Sharp, NTT, etc., bankrolled that R&D by licensing patents to the technology, and selling devices incorporating the technology. Today, the Internet enables new monetization models. Companies like Apple and Google can directly monetize video content through iTunes and Google Play (or indirectly through Youtube). They can use that to bankroll their investment in new video codecs.