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MPEG Plus or Patent Pool Lite? MPEG Mulls Royalty-Free Proposals
MPEG announced today it is working on a royalty-free MPEG standard in two tracks, one track based on expired MPEG patents and other royalty free technologies and the other based on a proposal that patent holders grant a royalty-free license to a “constrained baseline profile” of the widely used AVC/h.264 standard. According to the MPEG [...]
Half of MPEG-2 Patents Expire in 2012
The patents on substantial technologies of MPEG-2 will soon expire. More precisely, 50% of the MPEG-2 patent pool (134 US patents, including the 27 original 1996 MPEG-2 IPR Working Group’s patents) will expire by October 16, 2012. The remainder dribble out for several years through various patent life-extension techniques (continuations, divisions, and patent term adjustments). [...]
Royalty-Free MPEG Proposals Announced
MPEG has announced it has received proposals for a royalty-free MPEG standard and has settled on a deliberation process to consider them. The press release is here; the underlying meeting resolution is here. Relevant portions are copied below. A short analysis of the proposals is available at: MPEG Plus or Patent Pool Lite? MPEG Mulls [...]
MPEG envisages royalty-free MPEG video coding standard
MPEG has issued a press release describing its intent to move forward on developing a royalty-free MPEG standard. The press release is here, relevant part is below. The meeting resolution approving the press release is here. ************ UPDATE: This press release was picked up in multiple articles, and most interestingly discussed in the Guardian blog [...]
It Is Time to Standardize a Royalty-Free Video Codec
I’ve been saying for a while that the best way out of the Web video codec mess is formal standardization of a royalty-free video codec and that formal standards groups like MPEG and others should step up to the task. Of course, I mean a real, bona-fide standardization process, not a dubious rubber-stamping “ratification” nor [...]
MPEG Requests Comments, Further Evidence on Royalty-Free Standard
MPEG has issued a request for comments and a call for further evidence on a royalty-free video codec standard under consideration. The request is contained in the publicly available meeting resolutions of the October 2010 94th Meeting in Guangzhou, China. The request follows responses received at the October Guanghzou meeting to the previous August call [...]
MPEG Moves Forward With Royalty-Free Standard, Approves Call For Evidence
MPEG has moved forward with a royalty-free standard activity, approving a “Call for Evidence”, the typical first step in the MPEG standardization process. The MPEG Call for Evidence is referenced in the public Resolutions of the just-completed 93rd MPEG meeting, which also hint at an upcoming Call For Proposals. The Call for Evidence follows the [...]
Problem or Opportunity? Steve Jobs on Standardizing Royalty Free Codecs
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 ISO working group (WG 11 of ISO/IEC JTC 1 / SC 29, to be precise), has been looking into [...]
Google Blinks, Supports Standardizing WebM
Last night Google appears to have ended its silence about its willingness to standardize VP8 and WebM. Cnet has updated a news article, “Mozilla trying to build VP8 into HTML5 video“, with Google’s response: “We’re excited by the community’s response to the WebM project, and we support efforts to standardize the technology,” Google said in [...]
Google’s VP8 Patent Problem (It’s Even Bigger Than You Think)
Last week I encouraged Google to rethink their VP8 open sourcing patent strategy and “do the right open standards thing — join and contribute to responsible standards groups that are working to solve the royalty-free open standards need.” The blog was picked up in Simon Phipps’ ComputerWorld blog, ZDNet, The Register, LWN and elsewhere. At [...]