In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> you wrote:
> Does anyone else remember reading a web page that said (I'm paraphrasing
> here)...
> "...the patents are our way of enforcing conformity to the standard. As long
> as the encoder produces conforming bitstreams, we do not plan to enforce our
> patent rights..."
> All I can find now is a long, complex document about what the licensing
> terms are, and how much money they expect to make on each encoder.
Hi,
I seem to recall something like that... (about the enforcing)
But now they seem to have switched to making some money :/
(I heard from a friend of SoloH (mp3_enc) that he received the same email.
I think the large number of encoders that got released after ours (8hz-mp3)
really made them think everything over. One or two probably would not have
made a large difference, but 15 does (too much potential customers using
the free versions).
We indeed received the same email. And what is a poor student to do than
go to his knees and shut the whole operation down :/
Anyway, I have written a nice letter back to them explaining the situation
etc, etc, bla, bla, yada, yada. We'll see what they'll answer.
I hope they are not too p*ssed about our project.
I think we all chipped in pretty much time and effort to make this encoder
a nice and free alternative to us free-software-users, but it seems the
'official' effort is near death...
Ok, I hope somewhere, somehow some work keeps being done, but as we (8hz)
cannot afford a law suit (hope y'all understand) it seems our 15 minutes
of fame are over. Allas 't was fun. Maybe they will let us be, after they
read my nice reply ;)
What are your thoughts on this, fellow encoders and subscribers?
goran (@8hz.com)
