“John Borland wrote a great article for c|net last week about
the Ogg Vorbis project’s decision to continue even though the
company that was sponsoring them, iCast, collapsed in the dot-com
drop. The Ogg Vorbis format is an extremely interesting alternative
to the Fraunhofer Institute’s MP3 format. I’ve written about Ogg
Vorbis before; John Borland did his homework. Ogg Vorbis isn’t just
about better sound, it’s about having a free and open standard,
something that Linux users thrive on every day. The
Fraunhofer/Thomson MP3 format is not a free and open standard,
something that gives Open Source and Free Software enthusiasts a
major wedgie.”
“One quote from the article drove me up a wall. Thomson
Multimedia, the company that controls the MP3 format’s licensing
and royalties, has some guy named Henri Linde, with the massively
impressive title of Vice President of New Business, who uttered the
following:
“
We doubt very much that they are not using
Fraunhofer and Thomson intellectual property,
”
Linde said.
“
We
think it is likely they are infringing.
”
“You see the problem, right? Maybe you don’t. Ogg Vorbis has a
kicking free alternative to MP3 that sounds fantastic.
Unfortunately, the company that was paying their bills went under,
but Ogg is moving forward as normal. While they try to get back on
its feet, this monkey from Thomson Multimedia tries to sow doubt
and cast blame on a group he probably knows very little
about.”