Re: [rtcweb] Google VP8 Patent Grant for third parties [Was Re:Proposal for H.263 baseline codec]

["Olle E. Johansson" <[e-mail]>]

12 apr 2012 kl. 18:09 skrev Kevin P. Fleming:

> On 04/12/2012 02:21 AM, Olle E. Johansson wrote:
> 
>> This is really bad news for Open Source. Even if we try to get a way to pay for licenses, our business model is far away from understandable for most of the syndicates. I tried with the AMR codec once and it stopped at initial order quantity. Anything under 10.000 licenses was not up for discussion.
>> 
>> G.729 is available on one-by-one basis which both Asterisk and FreeSwitch sell to users... I have no insight into how these agreements was worked out, but it at least indicates that someone tries to open up.
> 
> It is my understanding that the licensing arrangements that have been made for G.729 are no longer an option for new licensees (not offered by the consortium), and to my knowledge such arrangements have never been an option for any of the other voice/video codecs that our customers have asked us about (including H.264, the AMR family and others).

And isn't that a shame. The question here for the legal department is wether Google's policies in regards to VP8 is enough for companies like you to work with it in either binary addons or Open Source code? Does it provide enough liability assurance?

I think that question is where we are right now.

If not, will Google try to offer a solution?

/O