[Patents] MP3 Licensing Policy

[PILCH Hartmut phm@a2e.de]

> Am I right to infer from your reply that you believe your patents to cover
> all implementations, including pure software ones? 
 
> |Our patents do NOT cover any specific mp3 implementation (software), but 
> the
> |principles of the mp3 coding technology as standardized by ISO/IEC. Please
> |visit our website http://mp3licensing.com, especially
> |http://mp3licensing.com/patents.html for more details on our patents.

As I understand this, a method is covered, which can be implemented in
software as well as hardware.  Such methods are, according to a strict
interpretation of the existing laws, not enforcable against software
implementations (i.e. 'software as such').  But the lawcourts do not
adhere to this strict interpretation.  They have, starting from the ABS
case in the early 1980s, gradually allowed 'software as such' to be
interpreted as 'software as far at is not technical', and then proceeded
to state that anything based on the Turing principle is technical, i.e.
software by definition is not software.

You can not really blame the MP3 patentees for this sophistry of the
patent courts.  If I was a patentee, I'd use all the rights a patent court
gave me, no matter what legal reasoning their judgement is based on.

MP3 is a nice example for showing where the borders should be: Under EPC
52, MP3 software should not be touched by patents, but MP3 hardware may.  
This would give the patentee a rather weak monopoly right, but even such a
right can be enough to make quite a lot of money.

Originally the MP3 patentees have by themselves allowed implementation of
MP3 in opensource software.  But it seems there is no guarantee as to
whether this will be allowed forever.  At the Berlin conference
(http://swpat.ffii.org/penmi/bmwi-20000518) people reported that the MP3
patent managers are considering to end the free licensing of MP3 soon.
Pressure seems to be building up to exploit patent rights as far as
possible, once the technology becomes a standard.

I would be very glad to hear some knowledgable comments on that.

-phm