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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“Trust But Verify”: IPR & BBC’s Project Canvas
August 31, 2009 – 6:46 pm | No Comment
“Trust But Verify”: IPR & BBC’s Project Canvas

I have filed comments in the UK Project Canvas public consultation.  To catch up on the UK context with global implications, watch James Murdock’s mesmerizing anti-BBC screed, and say…
“This is the BBC.”
Perhaps no other single …

And the Best Answer For Open Web Video Is …
July 10, 2009 – 3:57 pm | One Comment
And the Best Answer For Open Web Video Is …

In a virtual rematch of 18 months ago, the HTML 5 community has again stalemated on how to include video capability.  On June 29, HTML 5 Editor Ian Hickson posted on the whatwg mailing list:
After …

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 …

Why Did the FCC Broadcast the Broadband Plan Kickoff in a Proprietary Format?
April 9, 2009 – 2:29 pm | No Comment
Why Did the FCC Broadcast the Broadband Plan Kickoff in a Proprietary Format?

Yesterday’s kickoff of the FCC’s Broadband Plan proceedings were broadcast over the Internet in a proprietary video format.
Worse, it was likely converted from a standards-based format to a proprietary format before it was put on …

Broadband Recovery Needs A Policy Preference for Royalty-Free Standards
March 25, 2009 – 1:57 pm | No Comment
Broadband Recovery Needs A Policy Preference for Royalty-Free Standards

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the “Recovery Act”, has allocated an unprecedented $7 Billion to broadband and has launched a new chapter of broadband policy in the US.
The coming months will inspire …

Why the Sad State of Interactive TV Matters and What to Do About It
March 16, 2009 – 10:47 am | One Comment
Why the Sad State of Interactive TV Matters and What to Do About It

What would the Internet look like today if history had been just slightly different?
Say for example the Internet’s open, royalty-free foundation — protocols, HTML, etc. — hadn’t mostly won out?
Leaving only proprietary solutions or shifting …

Why the Digital TV Delay May be a Good Thing
February 2, 2009 – 5:25 pm | 4 Comments
Why the Digital TV Delay May be a Good Thing

To be blunt:  America has the world’s most overpriced, antiquated, under-performing and anti-convergence digital TV system, and yet another delay in transition will create yet another round of inevitably-necessary but paper-over-the-problems government subsidies to highly …

Hey Obama: Rethink Digital Television
January 21, 2009 – 7:31 pm | 5 Comments
Hey Obama: Rethink Digital Television

“American consumers will purchase more than 45 million DTVs
and will be overcharged more than one billion dollars in the
crucial digital transition years of 2008 and 2009 alone”
What?  The transition to digital TV is a massive …

Royalty-Free Java DTV Specification Released for Brazil and the World
January 12, 2009 – 2:03 pm | 8 Comments

Sun Microsystems has released a royalty-free Java specification as an alternative to the royalty-encumbered “GEM” and “MHP” family of digital TV specifications developed by the European Digital Video Broadcasting group and associated groups.
“GEM” and “MHP” …