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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Articles in Digital TV

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, …

Patent Fights Fuel US DTV’s Slide from World Stage
April 29, 2009 – 5:24 pm | One Comment
Patent Fights Fuel US DTV’s Slide from World Stage

The “FATT” is fighting back this week in comments filed at the US FCC against the “Coalition United To Terminate Financial Abuses of the Television Transition” (CUT FATT) proposal to address patent overreaching in the …

Wake-Up Call to US FCC: Argentina Looks to Follow Peru in Adopting Japanese-Brazilian Digital TV Standard
April 27, 2009 – 12:53 pm | No Comment
Wake-Up Call to US FCC: Argentina Looks to Follow Peru in Adopting Japanese-Brazilian Digital TV Standard

What a telling and timely juxtaposition.
On the day responses are due to the US FCC’s request for comments to the CUT FATT request for an official inquiry into patent overcharging in the US digital TV …

FCC Agrees to Hear DTV Patent Comments
March 12, 2009 – 5:13 pm | No Comment
FCC Agrees to Hear DTV Patent Comments

The FCC has requested comments on the CUT FATT petition (discussed here) to review DTV patent abuses.
Some articles on the FCC request are here and here, the FCC notice (comments due April 27) is here, …

Java@Digital TV Conference
March 12, 2009 – 12:10 pm | No Comment

A bright potential is shining for interactive TV in Brazil, which has a unique moment of opportunity to start from a complete, royalty-free specification — Ginga – and avoid the systemic stalling gridlock that has …