Slashdot Mirror
Nero Files Antitrust Complaint Against MPEG-LA
hkmwbz writes "German technology company Nero AG has filed an antitrust complaint against the MPEG-LA, the company that manages the H.264 patent pool. Nero claims that the MPEG-LA has violated the law and achieved and abused 100% market share, by, among other things, using 'independent experts' that weren't independent after all, not weeding out non-essential patents from the pool (in fact, it has grown from the original 53 to more than 1,000), and retroactively changing previously-agreed-on license terms."
Although I disagree with most of what that company does, their MPEG licensing fee is on the order of $2 per manufactured device to use their technology. This isn't really extortion. HDMI is 4 cents per device, but you're required to maintain a $10,000 license fee on top of that. I think gross abuse would be more on the order of $50/device.
Either way, I support the free and open standard provided by displayport, which dispatches with the fees.
They seemed so busy turning their superior burning tool into another bloated intrusive dog.
There are other completely free products that have matched Nero's (former) minimalist approach. CDBurnerXP is great on Windows. Brasero works great on Linux. On OS X, Burn is not quite as much my style, but it's simple and get it's job done.
Essentially, Nero got priced out of the "dirt simple I just wanna burn a damned CD" market. Bloatware is all that's left.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Another worthy Windows mention is InfraRecorder and it's opensource to boot.
I don't have any affiliation with this project.
Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
Well, you probably would have trouble getting a modern compression system that doesn't infringe on one or more of their patents, but you can use an older video format.
Consider that DVD was developed in 1995, so the base MPEG-2 patents expire within 5 years, if not earlier.
The draft MPEG-1 standard was out in 1990, so a codec based on MPEG-1 technology should be free of patent issues.
H.264 dates from 2003, so we probably have another 13 years there.
Ultimately, it may take a legal battle with Google to invalidate or narrow some of the H.264 patents such that VP8 or something similar can compete patent-free.
This couldn't have come at a worse time for MPEG-LA. They're just now preparing for an epic struggle with Google over VP8 and Nero comes from behind and sticks a dagger in their spine.
FTFA, Nero claims that MPEG-LA has not abided by the license and changed it's policies against what there was previously written agreement of.
Actually, they don't indemnify at all. I've seen stories that apparently they are forming a patent pool for Theora and WebM/VP8, but the only place I can't find any confirmation of that is from MPEG LA themselves. The "official stance" referred to by the AC was mentioned in the story about them forming a VP8 pool, but said statement (and VP8 plan) doesn't exist on their site.
And they sue. A lot.
They are founding a patent pool for human gene patents though. That can't be evil at all.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Uuuuhhhh...You DO know that if all you want is the burner Nero will let you have it for free, yes? Or that if you want an even more simple interface there are great free choices such as IMGBurn which you can even install with a one click unattended installation thanks to Ninite that will install nearly all the major apps folks need/want, like FF,.NET/Flash/Silerlight/Java, even IM, AV, and Media Players, all in an interface so simple even your grandma can use it?
So while the full Nero may not be YOUR cup of tea, there are enough folks buying it that Nero thinks it is the correct way to go for their customers, but they are still nice enough to offer the basic version for $0. And just because you think it is "bloated" doesn't mean the masses do. Just look at home pages, which working PC repair I can tell you the average Joe by a good 99 out of 100 have set to this instead of this because they actually LIKE it that way!
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Here's the Supreme Court's decision:
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-661.pdf
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
The supreme court just ruled today that the NFL can't license the team trademarks collectively.
No. They ruled that the Sherman Antitrust Act would apply for collective licenses. They could still collectively license trademarks without a problem. The specific issue was that the NFL argued they didn't need to worry about antitrust issues while issuing an exclusive collective contract. They may still be able to do exactly what they've already done, and there was no ruling banning collective licensing at all (and nothing that could even be construed to hold back any collective agreement of any kind).
But if you have a collection of competitors agreeing to to work together, antitrust issues apply. It may have some impact on this case if it's found that the cross licensing is an antitrust issue, but there's nothing that would prevent any group from collective licenses (presuming other laws not examined in this ruling aren't broken).
Learn to love Alaska
FTFA, Nero got a license from MPEG-LA saying that they didn't have to pay license fees for trial software. Now, MPEG-LA has changed their minds and has demanded payment retroactively for all the free trials Nero has provided before the change.
the problem is that in the "real" world corporations and the US Government do not allow free or open source software on their computers. It is all fine that you have free alternatives, but they won't be allowed on the machines due to administrative policies.
I work for the US Government, and we run a ton of open source on various systems. Most other governments and most corporations do too (Apache - a FLOSS product, runs most of the Internet).
Your statement is completely without merit.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain