[opendtv] Re: VP8 Codec Open Sourced
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 20 May 2010 09:34:27 -0400
At 7:48 AM -0400 5/20/10, Tom Barry wrote:
The main issue seems to be the overwhelming fear of yet-unnamed patent
trolls. This disgusts me as it is possible in this day and age there is
NO technical solution for the problem. It may instead have to be
settled in the courts and possibly with new legislation and patent
office policies. Google has enough money to really publicize this
issue and hire the needed lobbyists so maybe this will become a rallying
point against a problem that is really throwing sand in the gears of
technology progress.
To be fair, the most likely suspects in terms of going after VP8 are
not "trolls" per se. They are likely to be members of the MPEG-LA
patent pools for h.263 and h.264. I could name several of the
companies, but will resist. The good news is that most of the patents
on h.263 are going to expire in the next year or two; the patents
specific to h.264 still have some life, so this is where I would
expect the challenges to come from.
And I would not hold my breath with respect to new legislation or
patent office policies - every time the politicians get involved in
this area they make the situation worse.
It would be nice to think that the Patent Office would do a better
job in terms of granting patents that are questionable, but this as
not been their modus operandi. Instead they grant almost everything
and force those who are sued by the patent trolls to prove that there
was prior art, and thus the patent should not ave been issued in the
first place.
Bottom line, it's all about job security for attorneys...
I'd love to see a Constitutional amendment that prohibits attorneys
from running for Congress - IMHO it is a conflict of interest for
lawyers to make the laws that they feast upon.
Regards
Craig
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