[backstage] H.264
Surprised nobody posted about this already :) From the MPEG LA: MPEG LA announced today that its AVC Patent Portfolio License will continue not to charge royalties for Internet Video that is free to end users (known as Internet Broadcast AVC Video) during the next License term from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2015. Products and services other than Internet Broadcast AVC Video continue to be royalty-bearing, and royalties to apply during the next term will be announced before the end of 2010. Full release at: http://www.mpegla.com/Lists/MPEG%20LA%20News%20List/Attachments/226/n-10-02-02.pdf (It's not the idea situation, obviously, but just shy of 5 years is good enough for me!) M. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
RE: [backstage] H.264
Surprised nobody posted about this already :) From the MPEG LA: MPEG LA announced today that its AVC Patent Portfolio License will continue not to charge royalties for Internet Video that is free to end users (known as Internet Broadcast AVC Video) during the next License term from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2015. Products and services other than Internet Broadcast AVC Video continue to be royalty-bearing, and royalties to apply during the next term will be announced before the end of 2010. Full release at: http://www.mpegla.com/Lists/MPEG%20LA%20News%20List/Attachments/226/n-10-02- 02.pdf So how does this affect the Beeb? Because effectively licencepayers are paying for the iPlayer service as part of the portfolio even though its usage doesn't require a licence... Or has the BBC always paid licence fees for the use of the codecs? - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] H.264
On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 17:09, Christopher Woods chris...@infinitus.co.uk wrote: So how does this affect the Beeb? Because effectively licencepayers are paying for the iPlayer service as part of the portfolio even though its usage doesn't require a licence... Or has the BBC always paid licence fees for the use of the codecs? Nothing changes - H.264 for Internet Broadcast has been free, but was due to require a paid license as of this year. MPEG-LA have extended the free period for 5 years. (The BBC probably _does_ have a license for the AVC family, but it wouldn't affect this). M. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
RE: [backstage] H.264
Nothing changes - H.264 for Internet Broadcast has been free, but was due to require a paid license as of this year. MPEG-LA have extended the free period for 5 years. (The BBC probably _does_ have a license for the AVC family, but it wouldn't affect this). Any idea why the MPEG-LA did this then? Seems to be quite an about-turn given everyoen was bracing for enforced commercial licensing... - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] H.264
On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 18:32, Christopher Woods chris...@infinitus.co.uk wrote: Any idea why the MPEG-LA did this then? Seems to be quite an about-turn given everyoen was bracing for enforced commercial licensing... A sudden outbreak of common sense? Given the fees that were being mooted, enough people to make a difference would switch wholesale to Theora (at the risk of hitherto unknown patent attacks), or if Google finalises the On2 deal and opens up VPwhatever, that. From a bait-and-switch perspective, ending the free programme now would be shooting themselves in the foot. Better to wait until people *can't* switch. That said, five years is a long time in this game. I think they have (from a licensing perspective) gone too far the other way and pegged it at a point where alternatives to H.264 would start to gain traction again. To be honest, though, it's theoretical licensing fees: many of the people using H.264 are only going to do it while it doesn't cost them money. I wouldn't be surprised if some members of the LA were pushing for a perpetual license in this context, making the money back from hardware (which is a far safer revenue stream anyway). That would have been more sensible all-round, as it would make most of the objections to AVC disappear. Is 5 years long enough for people to give up pushing alternatives? Is it so long that people will be exploring better alternatives already? Will it make any difference at all to Mozilla? I honestly have no idea. What I do know is that it's a weight off *my* mind. I was actually starting to get quite worried about how much cash I'd have to find. M. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] H.264
Think the adobe media encoders come with licenses as standard Would suspect the akamai media cdn servers also have there licenses covered in any case, Ant On 04/02/2010 18:32, Christopher Woods chris...@infinitus.co.uk wrote: Nothing changes - H.264 for Internet Broadcast has been free, but was due to require a paid license as of this year. MPEG-LA have extended the free period for 5 years. (The BBC probably _does_ have a license for the AVC family, but it wouldn't affect this). Any idea why the MPEG-LA did this then? Seems to be quite an about-turn given everyoen was bracing for enforced commercial licensing... - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Fwd: Slashdot| Apple's Trend Away From Tinkering
Thoughts on postcard? Original Message Subject: [GeekUp] Fwd: Slashdot| Apple's Trend Away From Tinkering Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2010 10:56:22 + From: Paul Robinson p...@vagueware.com To: GeekUp gee...@googlegroups.com I saw this over on the Open Manufacturing list, and figured as so many here are: a) Tinkerers b) Advocates of Free c) Apple Fan bois d) And/or Apple hate bois ... that this discussion might be of interest to several of you. Begin forwarded message: http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/01/31/1657233/Apples-Trend-Away-From-Tinkering Having cut his programming teeth on an Apple ][e as a ten-year-old, Mark Pilgrim laments that Apple now seems to be doing everything in their power to stop his kids from finding the sense of wonder he did: 'Apple has declared war on the tinkerers of the world. With every software update, the previous generation of jailbreaks stop working, and people have to find new ways to break into their own computers. There won't ever be a MacsBug for the iPad. There won't be a ResEdit, or a Copy ][+ sector editor, or an iPad Peeks Pokes Chart. And that's a real loss. Maybe not to you, but to somebody who doesn't even know it yet.' http://diveintomark.org/archives/2010/01/29/tinkerers-sunset http://al3x.net/2010/01/28/ipad.html Lots of interesting comments from an open perspective (on all sides of the issue). --Paul Fernhout I have to admit this is about the best set of arguments I've seen for Free in a while. I sit here, about to go into a school and talk to a bunch of teenagers about careers in technology as part of my work with STEMnet. I was thinking earlier, most of them have probably never tinkered, but as we've discussed here in the past, if they did some of them would find the brilliance and happiness we all did when we first started tinkering. I am seriously tempted to reconsider my developer connection subscriptions with Apple as a result of thinking about this a bit more. Maybe. Other thoughts on all of this beyond the age old Free is the future vs GPL is for idiots debate we've had so many times before? -- Paul Robinson http://vagueware.com :: p...@vagueware.com :: +44 (0) 7740 465746 Vagueware Limited is registered in England/Wales, number 05700421 Registered Office: 3 Tivoli Place, Ilkley, W. Yorkshire, LS29 8SU Correspondence: 13 Crossland Road, Manchester, M21 9DU -- http://geekup.org/ | http://geekup.org/wiki/ | http://jobboard.geekup.org/ To post e-mail: gee...@googlegroups.com Or go online: http://groups.google.com/group/geekup/ To unsubscribe e-mail: geekup+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Fwd: Slashdot| Apple's Trend Away From Tinkering
Tim Dobson wrote: Thoughts on postcard? My postcard only has tickboxes for 'wish you were here', 'having a lovely time' and 'Had a lovely time at iDisney', all the rest of the card is too slippery to write on, what do I do? - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Fwd: Slashdot| Apple's Trend Away From Tinkering
Use a PC. Macs are consumer hardware - and it's never been suggested that they're anything else. Don't forget, the vast majority of people want their computer to just work - and that means: email, web browsing, basic word processing and maybe a spreadsheet. Oh, and handling their digital photos. And maybe their home videos. It's only people on this list who give more than a pico-shit* about making it do something interesting and different. Cheers, Rich. * the SI unit of caring On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 1:08 AM, Ian Stirling backstage...@mauve.plus.com wrote: Tim Dobson wrote: Thoughts on postcard? My postcard only has tickboxes for 'wish you were here', 'having a lovely time' and 'Had a lovely time at iDisney', all the rest of the card is too slippery to write on, what do I do? - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] H.264
Christopher Woods wrote: Nothing changes - H.264 for Internet Broadcast has been free, but was due to require a paid license as of this year. MPEG-LA have extended the free period for 5 years. (The BBC probably _does_ have a license for the AVC family, but it wouldn't affect this). Any idea why the MPEG-LA did this then? Seems to be quite an about-turn given everyoen was bracing for enforced commercial licensing... Read what it said again: -- MPEG LA announced today that its AVC Patent Portfolio License will continue not to charge royalties for Internet Video that is **free to end users** (known as Internet Broadcast AVC Video) during the next License term from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2015. -- (emphasis is my own) I'm fairly uncomfortable about this because it's quite unclear what the situation is with regards to other uses of the codec. I'd prefer to feel safer use theora but :-/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Fwd: Slashdot| Apple's Trend Away From Tinkering
On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 01:29, Richard Lockwood richard.lockw...@gmail.com wrote: Use a PC. Macs are consumer hardware - and it's never been suggested that they're anything else. Er, eh? Are we talking about the same thing, here? _iPads and iPhones_ are consumer hardware, no shadow of a doubt. OTOH, Apple has quite regularly suggested that Macs aren't necessarily consumer-focused. I don't think most consumers would care that 10.5 was certified UNIX, for example (or even know what that means, for that matter). Don't forget, the vast majority of people want their computer to just work - and that means: email, web browsing, basic word processing and maybe a spreadsheet. Oh, and handling their digital photos. And maybe their home videos. That I’ll agree with, though. It's only people on this list who give more than a pico-shit* about making it do something interesting and different. To be honest, it's worth bearing in mind that a) It's still very early days for iPhone OS - Apple has a backwards-compatibility nightmare with Mac OS X, and doesn't want to fall into the same trap where it has the opportunity to do things cleanly - things get added when Apple can figure out how to do them in a way which it is happy with (cf. Copy Paste, and also a few of the features appearing in 3.2) b) It's a first-generation device c) Apple won't be the only people producing tablets which work d) If all of this is as wildly successful as people seem to be predicting/Apple would like, they'll have no choice but to open things up I reckon this will happen before long, though: http://nevali.net/post/363412864/unlock-in M. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
