Jerry wrote: >>>What about the free open source G729 >>> >>> >>There's no such thing ... g.729 (as per the ITU specification) is patent >>encumbered. Anyone USING the codec has to pay a license to the patent >>holders. >> >> > >I believe (this may have changed) that ANY patented technology can be used >for free educationally. The idea is that people can study and play with >the technology for no charge. I'm not sure if this means that a University >can use this in their phone system without paying the patent fees, though. > >Now, certainly there can be "open source" versions of the G.729 codec. >They can even be "free" in the sense that the author is not charging. But >the author can't waive the patent rights. > >Intel has a freely downloadable codec for educational use, but they have a >long legalese document which explains the patent obligations. > >If you are using G.729 commercially, there is no question you have a legal >obligation to pay the patent holder for his rights. > > Whether it's a university or a megacorporation studying the technology, they have to be very careful.
Suppose we are working on automotive fuel economy or emissions improvement. If we buy a new or used car we are reasonably sure that a multitude of patents involved are being legally used. If we build a cadillac clone for the research, I would be worried. Another factor to consider in some cases is when we sign a sales contract that includes things like "no reverse engineering". It might be hard to prove that we did not reverse engineer the product in order to develop a patentable improvement. _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users