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This is probably behind Oracle's move to remove Opus from Virtualbox recordings and revert to Vorbis, as of v.7. There are a LOT of commercial apps using Opus.

by teilo 4y ago

This is probably behind Oracle's move to remove Opus from Virtualbox recordings and revert to Vorbis, as of v.7. There are a LOT of commercial apps using Opus. Like Skype. The fact that they are only going after hardware at present will brings Apple into the mix, because iOS devices support Opus. This should be interesting.

rockdoe 4y ago
There are a LOT of commercial apps using Opus. Like Skype. It's more like - Opus' voice part IS Skype. Skype contributed all their patents, technologies and key engineers to the development of Opus.
mappu 4y ago
There are known patents on Opus held by Xiph.org, Broadcom and Microsoft, all made freely available. But as per https://opus-codec.org/license/ https://opus-codec.org/license/ if you try patent litigation against anyone, your license to use any of these free patents is revoked. So there's not many ways this pool can work. A company can only join it if they want to give up on ever using Opus themselves. It's a really crazy move from Dolby since they have at least a few products that use Opus ( https://professional.dolby.com/product/dolby-voice/dolby-voice-room/ https://professional.dolby.com/product/dolby-voice/dolby-voi... , https://docs.dolby.io/communications-apis/docs/guides-dolby-voice https://docs.dolby.io/communications-apis/docs/guides-dolby-... , likely more)
- bscphil 4y ago
  > It's a really crazy move from Dolby since they have at least a few products that use Opus Seems like the strategy here is going to be to use FUD to leech small amounts of money from individual hardware device sales from the companies that can afford to pay it. It's just rent seeking. So long as they never actually sue anyone for their use of Opus, it seems like they'll be in the clear as far as the Opus license goes.
  - nerdponx 4y ago
    Sounds almost more like extortion. Edit: wouldn't it be pretty easy to call this bluff? you don't even have to try to win the court case, you just have to get them to sue you and immediately lose their license, or to admit that they can't sue you because they don't want to lose their own license, and the whole thing falls apart.
  - account42 4y ago
    A more cynical view is that this is not about the opus licensing fees at all but rather to discourage use of opus in favor of Dolby's own alternatives.
bubblethink 4y ago
>This is probably behind Oracle's move to remove Opus from Virtualbox recordings and revert to Vorbis, as of v.7. Do you mean Oracle is being defensive and doesn't want to be sued ? Or that Oracle is going to join this patent pool and go after others, and hence won't be able to use Opus themselves without being counter-sued ?
- teilo 4y ago
  Given that it’s Oracle we’re talking about, I’d say either is likely.

by teilo 4y ago

rockdoe 4y ago

There are a LOT of commercial apps using Opus. Like Skype. It's more like - Opus' voice part IS Skype. Skype contributed all their patents, technologies and key engineers to the development of Opus.

mappu 4y ago

There are known patents on Opus held by Xiph.org, Broadcom and Microsoft, all made freely available. But as per https://opus-codec.org/license/ https://opus-codec.org/license/ if you try patent litigation against anyone, your license to use any of these free patents is revoked. So there's not many ways this pool can work. A company can only join it if they want to give up on ever using Opus themselves. It's a really crazy move from Dolby since they have at least a few products that use Opus ( https://professional.dolby.com/product/dolby-voice/dolby-voice-room/ https://professional.dolby.com/product/dolby-voice/dolby-voi... , https://docs.dolby.io/communications-apis/docs/guides-dolby-voice https://docs.dolby.io/communications-apis/docs/guides-dolby-... , likely more)

bscphil 4y ago
> It's a really crazy move from Dolby since they have at least a few products that use Opus Seems like the strategy here is going to be to use FUD to leech small amounts of money from individual hardware device sales from the companies that can afford to pay it. It's just rent seeking. So long as they never actually sue anyone for their use of Opus, it seems like they'll be in the clear as far as the Opus license goes.
- nerdponx 4y ago
  Sounds almost more like extortion. Edit: wouldn't it be pretty easy to call this bluff? you don't even have to try to win the court case, you just have to get them to sue you and immediately lose their license, or to admit that they can't sue you because they don't want to lose their own license, and the whole thing falls apart.
- account42 4y ago
  A more cynical view is that this is not about the opus licensing fees at all but rather to discourage use of opus in favor of Dolby's own alternatives.

bubblethink 4y ago

>This is probably behind Oracle's move to remove Opus from Virtualbox recordings and revert to Vorbis, as of v.7. Do you mean Oracle is being defensive and doesn't want to be sued ? Or that Oracle is going to join this patent pool and go after others, and hence won't be able to use Opus themselves without being counter-sued ?

teilo 4y ago
Given that it’s Oracle we’re talking about, I’d say either is likely.