Bonum Certa Men Certa

Ubuntu Removes Codec Patent Trap, But What About Mono?

Towed away



Summary: The AAC encoder is taken off Ubuntu repositories, but other, more troubling software stays, despite clear warnings from Microsoft

CANONICAL has begun cleaning up a bit around its repositories, but what about Mono and Moonlight? They pose similar problems. Jeremy Allison has suggested that Ubuntu should put Mono in the "restricted" repositories [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Here is what Ubuntu does with the AAC encoder.



Problems with the licensing of the faac library could lead to it having to be removed from Ubuntu's distribution or moved to the "restricted" repositories where license encumbered codecs are kept. Libfaac is used to encode audio into the AAC format, which is used alongside a range of video formats to provide a soundtrack.


We previously explained how Apple and Microsoft were promoting the use of proprietary codecs with a lot of software patents in them.

In other news that ought to matter, OOXML continues to suffer from software patents, with McKool Smith taking a leading role, sometimes as a front for patent trolls [1, 2, 3, 4].

The folks at Microsoft Corp. have to be more than a little ticked at Mike McKool and his law firm.

In the last year, McKool Smith PC has won nearly $400 million in two patent infringement victories against the Redmond, Wash., software giant. It just filed a third suit, hoping for more of the same.


Last week we wrote about Microsoft losing its chance to appeal in the i4i case [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. This is now being covered in many news sites, such as the following:



It is worth adding that Microsoft's Marshall Phelps, who was among the engineers of the patent war against GNU/Linux and Free software, is joining the board of ipCapital Group, which seems like some form of a company that derives revenue from taxing the industry with intellectual monopolies and lawyer fees.

ipCapital Group, Inc. (ipcg.com), one of the nation's leading intellectual property (IP) strategy consulting and licensing firms, is proud to announce that Marshall C. Phelps, Jr., former Corporate Vice President, Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property and Licensing at Microsoft, has joined the firm as a member of the Board of Directors. Mr. Phelps is a leading figure in the field of intellectual property management and execution and pioneered many of its foremost strategies to unprecedented results while leading IP business and related activities at IBM and Microsoft.


We wrote about the subject of Marshall Phelps in [1, 2, 3]. He wrote an entire book to defend Microsoft's attack on GNU/Linux using software patents. To use a new example, here is how ridiculous the US patent system has become:

Redden told jurors that at first examiners rejected Ballard's patent application, both on initial examination and at reexam, citing check-scanning technology dating back as far as 1981.

"So Mr. Ballard amended his application to add the idea of encryption, and he got his patent," Redden said. Ballard's patent survived the reexam, Redden added, because it had one additional feature—encrypting a two-digit ID number on the back of a check.


Apple is now suing Android/Linux [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] with Microsoft's support [1, 2]. What about all the ideas Apple is taking from other companies?

Today I was at Williams Coffee Pub, eating a delicous bagel with garlic flavoured cream cheese and enjoying my coffee. I happened to stumble upon some interesting news around Apple and OpenPandora. The issue is over something called the "iControlPad" which was an add-on for the iPhone which made it easier to play games on the device. Apple decided it was a worthy enough invention that it decided to put a patent on it. That's correct folks, Apple stole someone else's invention (iControlPad.com). This isn't news if you know about Xerox though ;)


Typical Apple. And Apple -- like Microsoft -- is now bullying its #1 competitor using software patents.

"We've always been shameless about stealing great ideas."

--Steve Jobs, Apple



“As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours.”

--Bill Gates

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Week to Come
Planning ahead
LLM Slop Has Only Been a Boon for Misinformation Online
The very same companies that were supposed to maintain quality (again, not limited to Google with PageRank) are now actively participating in generating and spreading slop
When They Tell You It's Free, Does That Mean No Charges (If So, Who's Paying and Why)?
there's "no free lunch"
 
Links 28/07/2025: COVID-19 Sped up Brain Aging, "Circumvention is More Popular Than Compliance"
Links for the day
Richard Stallman is Usually Right Because He Thinks "Outside the Box"
he is able to observe society (mores and norms) as somewhat of an outsider
LWN Has Been Down for a Long Time, Another Casualty of LLM Bots?
Time will tell. How much time though?
Slopfarms Versus 'Linux' (and Against People Who Write Real Articles About GNU/Linux)
LLM slop in slopfarms by Brian Fagioli and Redazione RHC
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray and Running pkgsrc in a FreeBSD Jail
Links for the day
Microsoft Turns News Sites Into Spamfarms
Is the site The Register MS the next IDG?
The Register MS/The Register US
On Saturday I contacted them for a comment (before issuing criticism)
Hacking revelations at Vatican Jubilee of Digital Missionaries
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 27, 2025
We're Going to Focus Less on the Molotov Cocktail-Throwing Microsofters and More on Patents
We can get back to focusing on what we wanted to focus on all along
Just Trying to Keep Web Sites Honest (Journalistic Integrity)
the latest articles in LinuxIac are real
Links 27/07/2025: Political Affairs, Data Breaches, Attacks on Freedom of the Press
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: Hot in Japan and Terminal Escape Codes
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: More Microsoft Layoffs Coming, Science and Hardware News
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: FSF Hackathon and "Hulk Hogan Was a Very Bad Man"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: DAW Mixer Chains and Simple Software
Links for the day
The Register MS is Inventing or Giving Air Time to New Conspiracy Theories so as to Distort the Narrative As High-Profile Agencies Fall Prey to Microsoft Holes
But the problem is holes, i.e. Microsoft making bad products; the problem is Microsoft
Most Editors at The Register Are American, Including the Editor in Chief, a Decade-Long Microsoft Stenographer (Writing Prose to Sell Microsoft)
It's not easy to tell where the site is based (we tried) because it's hiding behind ClownFlare and CrimeFlare hasn't been well lately
Pushers of systemd Rewrite History (Richard Stallman Said UNIX "Was Portable and Seemed Fairly Clean")
Unlike systemd
"New Techrights" Soon Turns 2 (A Few Days Before the FSF Turns 40)
We have a lot more to say about LLM bots
When Silence Says So Much
Garrett, a 'secure' boot pusher, will need to defend himself in the UK High Court
The Register in Trouble
There is not much that can be done at this point
Trajectory of The Register: From News Site/s Into "B2B"... and Into Microsoft Salespeople
Something isn't right at The Register
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 26, 2025
Misinformation in Social Control Media
Social control media passes around all sorts of tropes
Slopwatch: Fake Linux 'Articles' and Slopfarms With "Linux" in Their Names/Domains
throwing bots at "Linux" to make some fake articles
Links 26/07/2025: Amazon Shutdown in China, Russian Economy Slows
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: History of Time (1988) and Gemini Games
Links for the day
Links 26/07/2025: 50 Percent Tariffs in Amazon, Dying Intel Offloads Network and Edge Group (NEX)
Links for the day
Doing My Share to Tackle Online Slop and SPAM
Trying my best to 'fix' the Web
Blaming Programming Languages for Users' and Developers' Bad Practices
That's like blaming cars for drivers who crash into things
Slopwatch: Fakes, FUD, Duplicates, and Charlatans Galore
The Web as we once know it is collapsing. Some opportunists try to replace it with low-quality slop.
The Register UK Seems to Have Become American and Management is Changing (Microsofter as Editor in Chief)
The Register 'UK' is now controlled by the Directions on Microsoft guy
Many People Still Read Techrights Because It Says the Truth, Produces Evidence, and Does Not Self-Censor
Unlike so many other sites
The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Microsoft Finally Finds a Use Case for Slop?
Create low-quality chaff to shift the media's attention?
Microsoft Windows Lost 400 Million Users in a Few Years, Why Does The Register Double Down on Windows With New US Editor?
days ago they hired a new US editor
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 25, 2025
For Libel Reform One Must First Bring (or Raise) Awareness to the Issues and Their Magnitude
I myself know, from personal experience
Links 26/07/2025: Rationed Meals in the US and TikTok Repels Investments (Too Toxic)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: "Bloody Google" and New People in Geminispace
Links for the day
Response to Solderpunk (Father of Gemini Protocol) About the Gemini Community
Solderpunk responds to non-sequitur
HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse
When the Web was more like Gemini Protocol