Gracenote v. Roxio CDDB Suit Settled

An anonymous reader writes with this update: "As reported via the usual sources, Roxio announced today that the lawsuit (read all about it on slashdot) with gracenote has been settled. To fresh up your memory: Gracenote ('cddb') sued Roxio because they switched from cddb to freedb for identification of audio CDs. Discussion on slashdot was active, especially questioning if gracenote really owned the titles. David Hyman, Gracenote CEO, added, 'We look forward to a long and mutually successful relationship between our companies through this new license for intellectual property and current and advanced music recognition services.' End of quote. Do I need say more than 'corporate lawyers'?"

Comments

Settlement

[GnulixRulz]

It is likely that Gracenote paid Roxio either cash or gave them access to some of their assets.

I looks like it is more critical to Gracenote to have an agreement with Roxio, rather than vice-versa. The masses don't care where their CD information comes from, they just use Roxio's software, and it works. Roxio has the pick of either CDDB or FreeDB, both are reasonably complete.

Gracenote, on the other hand, has to compete against a free service, and this seems like a bid to stay competitive by allying with a company that gives them access to a large part of the market, while keeping the option of shaking down smaller vendors of software, that users might want to switch to in the future.