Interesting news about MP3 licensing, potential headaches for consumers
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Was just reading Wired earlier tonight while cleaning up the room, and they had a pretty lengthy piece on MP3 licensing and the verdict against Microsoft that occurred this week. It wasn't in the mainstream press because it wasn't directly against Microsoft, but it was Alcatel-Lucent asserting that they hold the patent for MP3's along with the original patent holder. What does that mean for us? A couple of things
1) If Microsoft loses the appeals, it's going to have to pay a lot of cash for continued MP3 use and will likely abandon the format.
2) Another codec is going to take it's place, and right now the 3 front-runners are AAC, WMA and Ogg-Vorbis
3) Many audio players and companies dealing with MP3's are going to have to pay another license to Alcatel-Lucent, and they're going to be in trouble judging by Microsoft's amount.
This is good for the opponents of MP3, but I feel it's generally bad for us. Dam patents, oh well it seems everything's in the air for now but don't say I didn't warn you when we're forced to move off MP3 to another format. You guys can read the full article at Wired.com.
Enjoy,
-Steve
Posted bySteve at 11:28 PM
Labels: Digital Players, Microsoft, Music, Tech
