SV: [governance] Re: Why standards from ISO are not freely

[Tapani Tarvainen]

On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 04:53:56AM +0200, Kicki Nordström (kicki.nordstrom at srfriks.org) wrote:

> Dear   all,
> 
> I am  sure MP3 is an open standard!

I am equally sure it is not.

As already noted, openness of standards is subject to various
definitions, but I don't consider it free if I some users 
have to pay to use it.

MP3 is covered by several patents, and wherever they're valid,
MP3 cannot be legally used for commercial purposes without
paying a license fee. See http://mp3licensing.com or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3#Licensing_and_patent_issues.

> MP3 is the base and then DAISY standards is brought in to make the
> reading capacity to fit for instance blind persons who need to
> rotate around in a book, speed up the speech or search for
> particular parts in the book.

Patent-based restrictions probably do not apply in such use.

> DAISY standard is also open for everyone.

If it is based on MP3, it is not open for commercial use.

-- 
Tapani Tarvainen
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance