http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/07/22/1818209.shtml?tid=6
RealNetworks, the company that brings us the Real Player, announced today that it is launching Helix, an open standard for multimedia application development and deployment. The Helix platform brings with it standardized APIs that will allow playback of most multimedia formats, including .wmf (Windows Media Player), .mov (Quicktime), and .rm (Real). In a press conference staged at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention and broadcast live on the Internet, RealNetworks CEO and founder Rob Glaser talked about the Helix OS-independent platform, the Helix development community, and Helix application development. Brad Hefta-Gaub, v.p. of product development, performed a live demonstration of a Helix Universal Server running all three of the "big" media file formats simultaneously, along with an IP-enabled handheld device running mpeg4, and a Nokia cellular phone streaming radio over the Net. The company trotted out Open Source luminaries Bruce Perens (HP/Compaq), Brian Behlendorf (CollabNet), and Eric Raymond, as well as several industry partners, in support of its licensing schemes. Glaser said that Helix is being released under two licenses; the RealNetworks Public Source License (RPSL) and the RealNetworks Community Source License (RCSL). According to the CEO, the entire system will be released under the community source license, and various portions of the Helix system will also be available under the RPSL, which follows the Free Software Foundation's copyleft philosophy more closely. (continued in article)
