QT->MP3?

[Richard Gaskin]

Mark Waddingham wrote:
> I'd imagine one reason Apple pulled support for MP3 from the QT API was
> the software patents held by Frauhoffer in several countries (including
> Germany and the US). From what I understand of the situation Frauhoffer
> are 'entitled' to (and enforce) a fee for every 'MP3 encoder'
> distributed (whether it be for no cost or not).
> 
> Unfortunately, the legal issues surrounding the incorporation of support
> for MP3 encoding/decoding in the engine are muddy at best and would
> probably require many hours of a patent lawyer's time to correctly
> determine.

On my planet we have a rule:  If you keep silent about your patent and 
only choose to enforce _after_ you've seduced the entire world into 
using your work, that's recognized as bait-and-switch and your patent 
awarded to the public domain.

We've seen this with GIF, JPEG, and now MP3.  Where is the patent holder 
with the honesty to enforce a patent _before_ tens of millions of people 
invest in it?

Thank gawd Compton's was backed down, or we'd all be paying them 
royalties everytime we backup with two or more different file formats on 
the CD....

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
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  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com