6 posts and columns on licensing fee

Google Open Sources VP8 Video Codec. Will Apple, Microsoft and Intel Use It?

in News on May 19, 2010 at 10:36 am PT

Google’s plan to open-source the VP8 video codec has been rumored ever since the company acquired its developer, On2, in August 2009. After all, in the press release detailing the acquisition, Google clearly stated that “video compression technology should be a part of the Web platform.” So it’s no surprise that the company announced an open-source, royalty-free video format based on VP8 at its I/O conference Wednesday. What is surprising is the level of industry support Google has already rounded up for it.

Music’s Digital Sales Boom Comes to an End

in Media on April 9, 2010 at 6:54 am PT

Remember when people used to predict that digital music sales would make up for the disappearing CD? That’s officially over now: Last quarter, for the first time ever, the number of digital songs sold in the U.S. declined.

SCO: We’ll Live to Sue Another Day

in News on March 30, 2010 at 3:04 pm PT

SCO’s seemingly endless legal campaign over the copyrights to Unix may finally, thankfully, be over. On Tuesday afternoon, a federal jury found that Novell owns the rights to the operating system, foiling SCO’s plans to seek millions of dollars in licensing fees from companies it accused of illegally distributing its proprietary Unix code with the Linux OS.
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Twones May Be a Legal Hype Machine. But It’s No Hype Machine.

in Media on February 24, 2010 at 9:49 am PT

If you want to make a great music service, you either need to spend yourself into oblivion or risk lawsuits that will do the same thing. Twones has a clever idea to avoid both fates, but its service suffers as a result.

No Market Seen for Guitar Hero "Bronfman" Edition

in News on August 7, 2008 at 3:40 pm PT

It wasn’t very long ago that Warner Music Group boss Edgar Bronfman Jr. was demanding a share of Apple’s iPod revenue and calling for mandatory peer-to-peer filtering and taxes on recordable media and MP3 players. So to hear him calling for higher royalties from video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Star isn’t all that surprising.

No Market Seen for Guitar Hero “Bronfman” Edition

in News on August 7, 2008 at 3:40 pm PT

It wasn’t very long ago that Warner Music Group boss Edgar Bronfman Jr. was demanding a share of Apple’s iPod revenue and calling for mandatory peer-to-peer filtering and taxes on recordable media and MP3 players. So to hear him calling for higher royalties from video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Star isn’t all that surprising.