<op.tpje23z45rel5w@quark>
Current votes: None.
On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 23:03:43 +0100, H=E5kon Wium Lie <howcome@opera.com> = =20 wrote: > Due to software patents, MPEG 4 costs money. I actually know nothing about MPEG4's license, and even if I had it =20 printed out on my desk, I wouldn't probably understand enough of it to =20 make any assumptions or conclusions. As I'm no lawyer, I thus have to ask= : =20 How much does it cost and for whom? Would both authors and browser vendor= s =20 have to pay someone something to use MPEG-4, or is it a royalty-free =20 license of sorts, or what? I think this is very interesting even if I'm not equipped with the lawyer= y =20 competence required to understand the issues myself. > Also, it requires more processing power than many devices have. I believe most video card vendors are working on getting MPEG4 decoding =20 support in their products. Isn't that correct? > Who will pay for licenses to OLPC's machines? Good point. It depends on the license, I guess. Does it really cost money= =20 for everyone to use, no matter how it's used? > And, how will the get the power to decode? It has to be supported in hardware somehow. I also think it's a lot more = =20 likely to get hardware decoding support for MPEG4 than it is to get it fo= r =20 Theora. MPEG4 hardware decoders exists already, but I don't know of any =20 Theora decoders. Do you? > I think it's vital that we find an open format that the free world can > use. MPEG-4 is open per se, but it's not free (as in beer). It's an =20 international standard that unfortunately costs money to implement. Who i= t =20 costs money for, why, and how much is a very interesting question I'd lik= e =20 to be answered somehow. If nobody on this list has the answer, I'll try t= o =20 get them from my friends in NRK who are a bit more updated than me on the= =20 subject. > If MPEG4 is the alternative, we might as well continue using Flash and > <object>. But it's not a world I want to live in. Do you really think MPEG4 is that bad? It's at least not proprietary and = =20 one-vendor-controlled the way Flash is. That has to count for something, = =20 no? --=20 Asbj=F8rn Ulsberg -=3D|=3D- http://virtuelvis.com/quark/ =ABHe's a loathsome offensive brute, yet I can't look away=BB