Problem or Opportunity? Steve Jobs on Standardizing Royalty Free Codecs
June 3, 2010 – 4:38 pm | No Comment

As readers of this blog know, I am a long-time proponent of royalty-free standardization as the best option for open Web media, preferable to informal, vendor-run open-sourcing of undocumented or unreviewed Intellectual Property Rights.
MPEG, an …

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Broadband Policy

A Royalty-Free Network Policy For Broadband

Digital TV

16 years of “Grand Alliance”, not royalty-free yet?

Interactive TV

Fixing the Sad State of this Promising Convergence

Java DTV

Royalty-Free Java for DTV

OMS Video

Sun Microsystems’ Open Media Stack and OMS Video codec

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Article Archive for May 2009

Consumer Groups Request FCC Investigate DTV Patent Licensing
May 28, 2009 – 12:31 pm | No Comment

A group of public interest and consumer groups — Public Knowledge, Consumers Union, Free Press, Media Access Project, and New America Foundation — have filed reply comments in the CUT FATT proceeding on digital TV …

“Public Standards Require Public Accountability”
May 28, 2009 – 11:10 am | No Comment
“Public Standards Require Public Accountability”

I have filed reply comments in the CUT FATT proceeding (09-23).  Excerpt from the executive summary:
“The Commission’s request for comments has brought mostly highly critical opposing comments from patent holders, and mostly mild or ambivalent …

Is It Reasonable to Discriminate? ABA Group Weighs in on CUT FATT DTV Patent Dispute
May 5, 2009 – 1:22 pm | No Comment

“RAND” — Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory — is a term often used in standards contexts to describe or set expectations of fairness in patent licensing related to standards.
But what does the term “RAND” really mean?  As …

The New Math of “Objective” RAND: “Over Half” Is Less Than “A Tiny Fraction”
May 4, 2009 – 10:07 pm | One Comment

There is much contention in the CUT FATT filings as to how much royalties are claimed on the US and other DTV systems, and what significance the differences may have in the framework of “RAND” …

A Revisionist History of TV Patent Pools
May 4, 2009 – 1:29 pm | No Comment

Mitsubishi Electric, a patent holder in the ATSC patent pool, in commenting in the CUT FATT DTV patent consideration, makes the statement (emphasis added):
“Neither Congress nor a U.S. government agency has ever compelled patent holders …

DTV Patent Holders Push to Continue Royalty Scheme
May 4, 2009 – 10:39 am | No Comment

FCC Docket 09-23, Petition For Rulemaking And Request For Declaratory Ruling Filed By The Coalition United To Terminate Financial Abuses Of The Television Transition, has drawn filings from Mitsubishi, Valley View, Philips/LG Electronics, Funai, Thomson, …