[maemo-developers] The encumberance of Ogg (was Re: How to add ogg to the supported codecs/containers list?)

[From: Dave Neuer]

On Dec 10, 2007 12:00 PM, Michael Wiktowy <michael.wiktowy at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Starting a new topic thread since I don't want to hijack the parent one:
> I really don't understand Nokia's hesitation wrt supporting ogg
> officially. In fact, they seem to be actively surpressing it as an
> emerging standard. (ref:
> http://www.w3.org/2007/08/video/positions/Nokia.pdf ). I would love to
> hear the reasoning behind calling ogg "proprietary" and why Nokia
> Maemo devs won't touch ogg with a 10 foot pole while seeming to remain
> (morally) supportive here.

That document reads to me like a defense of the status quo from an
established market player who doesn't mind the IP regime (since they
already directly or indirectly license MPEG4/MP3) but instead very
much minds the idea of competition from the kind of small device
manufacturers who _might_ be able to compete if they didn't have to
license those codecs.

Not that I believe that there are hoards of potential device
manufacturers out there ready to release the next great internet
device, frustrated only by the lack of a patent-free "standard" for
"Internet Video."

But it is ironic that they chose to use the word "proprietary" to
describe Ogg: the justification for that description seems to lie in
points 2, 4 and 6 in the "Possible requirements for codecs..."
section.

At any rate, this is supposed to be a developers' list, so I'll shut up now.

Dave