David Boles wrote:
FYI - All of the codecs are not supplied by Microsoft in Windows either.
Only the ones that they license for their bundled software. The Windows
Media Player is an example.
Others can be added if needed or come with other media software that is
*bought and paid for by you*. And they can provide the codecs because they
pay a license fee.
The question is, how many times do you have to pay for the right, for
example, to play a dvd?
When you buy the DVD player and hook it up to your TV maybe? The
manufacturer has paid a license fee to use the codecs when he built the
DVD player to sell to you.
So it's once per device? Once per user? Once per piece of software on
the device? Per user times devices? Per user times devices times
possible copies of software that might access the device?
Or when you *buy* the software to view the DVD on your computer that works
because the company that *sold* you the software paid a license fee to do
that.
Most computer DVD players also include software to play movies,
presumably with a paid license for all relevant patents.
I do not recall any DVD bragging about you being able to watch it on your
computer when using Linux as your OS?
Why is the OS any more relevant than the brand of the TV and receiver
you might hook to a player? The patent covers the process of decoding,
nothing else. In particular, why is it any of the patent holders
business when he has already been paid for the license?
Can you watch it on your computer in
Windows or MAC OSX? Sure. When using Windows, or MAC, software with a paid
license for the codecs.
And the license that you are referring to belongs with the software that
you can not use. Which they see, as do you apparently, is of your own
choosing to not use.
But patents aren't tied to copies, they cover processes.
This is a round-robin argument. The people that own the codecs are not
going to give them away.
Right, and I've paid for the right to use them.
The people that provide Fedora to you, and me,
are not going to pay for the license, which I would think would be per DVD
ISO downloaded/sold/given away and for each and every piece of software
that could use it, and then *give* it to you for free. Nor do they want to
on policy and principal.
In other words? I don't ever see it happening until the codecs are FOSS.
And I seriously doubt that will ever happen.
I'm not implying that they are free, I'm saying that paying for the
right to use a patented process should give you the right to use that
patented process even if the software version delivered to you isn't the
exact copy that you use.
I get paid for the work that I perform and my company gets paid for what I
do. I guess that they would like the same.
Do you charge for services you aren't providing at all? This is the
case for the patent fees included in bundled software you don't or can't
use.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx
