Comments on: Open Format: permanent interoperability matters!

By: ][ stefano maffulli » Nokia contro il W3C, scontro sui brevetti software

][ stefano maffulli » Nokia contro il W3C, scontro sui brevetti software — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:23:25 +0000

[...] Il paper segnalatomi dal prof. Fuggetta mi sembra quasi un colpo di rovescio per aggirare questa policy anti-brevetti, dato che Nokia è una di quelle pochissime aziende europee favorevoli ai brevetti sul software. Fa bene invece il W3C a resistere a questo ennesimo attacco della lobby pro-brevetti. Certo OGG Theora non è il formato tecnicamente migliore, la gestione del formato è criticabile, ma è il migliore disponibile. Mi auguro che questo confronto con il W3C serva a far discutere ancora sulle idiozie dei brevetti sugli algoritmi MPEG. [...]

By: Commercial Open Source Software » Open Format: what do you mean by that?

Commercial Open Source Software » Open Format: what do you mean by that? — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 11:49:45 +0000

[...] There are many proposal definitions of Open Format, reported by wikipedia (see previous post) to the IDA migration guidelines one, that says: Open Standard protocols are defined as those which are free from patents and with an OSS implementation [...]

By: Roberto Galoppini

Roberto Galoppini — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 10:10:09 +0000

OGG/Theora might become a standard, I mean a published standard.
Unfortunately Xiph.org has not even specified such format, but I believe it might get done. But defining new formats outside of standardization bodies is a risky bet, think about the patent issue.
In my opinion Richard’s position it’s a pure tacticism, a mean toward a goal: promoting free software.
My concerns are about data accessibility, and I think we need a strategy to guarantee access to our data, for ever.

By: ][ stefano maffulli » Is OGG/Theora a standard?

][ stefano maffulli » Is OGG/Theora a standard? — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 06:35:05 +0000

[...] Is OGG/Theora a standard? Roberto is asking a very difficult question: is OGG/Theora a standard, after all? Since it is not documented in anything else but the source code, and the code is distributed under BSD license, what will make sure that nobody will start predatory practices on the format? I understand Richard’s request though, based on practical terms as usual: there are no other formats for audio/video that aren’t encumbered by nasty patents. Is OGG a standard? Probably not. Is it an open unencumbered format? I think so. Will my data be safe for future use? This is the most difficult question to answer: one can say that since the code is out there you can always write the decoder. But real life is more complex than that. [...]