[Asterisk-Users] g.729 - licenses and opinions

[Steve Underwood]

Steven Critchfield wrote:

>On Thu, 2004-05-13 at 12:07, Andrew Kohlsmith wrote:
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>>17 years for software patents is FAR too long, IMO, but that's an entirely 
>>different story.  IMO software patents shoudln't be for more than ~24 months 
>>since the industry moves so blazingly fast.
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>I'm of mixed feelings here. I don't like software patents at all, but
>without them, some of the voice compression that is out there would
>possibly not have been developed. What would have been the incentive for
>the telecoms to allow the public in on some of the voice compressions
>with out getting paid for the work. So while I think it is important, I
>also can't seem to draw a reasonable line. 24 months in most software
>isn't enough time from day 0 to make any reward for the work, at least
>not monetarily. What software project out there do you know had a major
>roll out sufficiently under 24 months from beginning of programming to
>have paid the programming staff off after say 1 year past the initial 24
>months? 
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As someone who has working in speech coding I'd say this is complete 
nonsense. The mass of patents on speech coding was a land grab, and 
nothing more. Much of the really clever stuff in speech coding is 
unencumbered, and always was. In general it is a mass of dumb stuff that 
you unfortunately need to use that has been patented. Those patents are 
not the result of deep research. They are just road blocks stuck in 
people's way.

There was so much to gain the early digital cellular days by being at 
the leading edge, that any of the major wireless companies would have 
been just as dedicated to succeeding without patents. If you look at the 
people claiming a piece of the IP pie for, say, half rate GSM you will 
see almost every well known wireless company, and a few more. All the 
real work for that codec was done by Motorola, who developed it, and 
owes almost nothing to all those hangers on. It does own a lot to basic 
CELP work done at AT&T in the early 80's, but they never patented that.

Regards,
Steve