Bonum Certa Men Certa

A Warning About MPEG-G, the Latest Software Patents Trap That Threatens Innovation Everywhere

Last year: Patent Troll MPEG-LA Expands From Software Patents to Patents on Life While USPTO is Virtually Headless

MPEG-G



Summary: Combining patents on software and on life, MPEG-G assembles a malicious pool with malignant ramifications for bioinformatics

"You might find it interesting," a reader told us some days ago, pointing to this article and corresponding comments about MPEG-G, which relates to what we've been writing about the MPEG cartel.



We didn't see this before, at least not under this name, which helps distance the perpetrators from the legacy of trolling and blackmail (amassing pools of USPTO-granted patents). Here are the core arguments against it:

I ended the last blog with the statement "history is resplendent with battles where a good PR campaign won the day". I truly wish this wasn't a battle. I engaged with MPEG-G from the moment I heard about it, submitting ideas to improve it, despite being instrumental in recent CRAM improvements. I had hopes of a better format.

I bowed out after a while, making rather weak excuses about work loads. However the honest reason I disengaged was due to the discovery of patent applications by people working on the format. I wanted nothing to do with helping others making profits, at the expense of the bioinformatics community. I regret now that I helped make the format that little bit better. I am guilty of being hopelessly naive.

I am not against commercialisation of software. I use plenty of it daily. Indeed I once worked on software that was sold on a semi-commercial basis, from which I personally benefited.

A commercial file format however is a different beast entirely. It touches everything that interacts with those files. Programs that read and write the format need to be licensed, adding a burden to software developers

I'm also not against patents, when applied appropriately. I can even see potential benefits to software patents, just, although the 25 year expiry is far too long in computing. 25 years ago the Intel Pentium had just come out, but I was still using an 8MB Intel 486 PC. It seems ludicrous to think something invented back then would only just be opening up for others to use without having to pay royalties. Holding a patent for that long in such a fast moving field is extreme - 5 to 10 years max seems more appropriate.


Read on and see the comments.

"The "benevolent monopoly" model obviously has advantages for open source--because the company bankrolls R&D by monetizing something else," it says, "it can afford to release the results of the research for everyone to use. But it's not sustainable without the sponsor (and we know this, because open source has been around for a long time, and there is little precedent for a high-performance video codec designed by an independent group of open source developers)."

"Much worse," told us the reader, "are [patents] for machine learning - if granted, they will paralyze this field..." [1, 2, 3]

Recent Techrights' Posts

António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day