One MP3 player company has defied the RIAA and announced that they will be supporting the Ogg format. The Neuros MP3 players will support playback of the royalty-free, unencrypted audio format. I wonder if they'll get sued for contributory copyright violation for supporting a non-grandfathered non-DRM-based format. Anyway, let's hope that the likes of Apple and Archos follow suit. (I'm currently awaiting the arrival of my Archos Jukebox Recorder.)

Posted by: gjw | http://the-fix.org | Tue Feb 25 04:49:10 2003

I doubt the RIAA could do any more about stopping these devices, any more than they could stop the production of basic MP3 players a couple of years ago. Both audio formats are identical in terms of copy protection - in fact, OGG is even more legal because there's no possible licencing issue for Fraunhofer. I'd love a hardware OGG player - the only reason I still use MP3s is because my mobile / car stereo don't support OGGs.

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Tue Feb 25 04:54:43 2003

MP3 they have to tolerate because it's established. OGG is not established, and has no DRM capabilities. There is a tacit agreement between the RIAA/IFPI and hardware makers that MP3 will be tolerated but all new formats (i.e., WMA, AAC) have to have DRM built in. OGG support breaks ranks there, and since it's one company, it's not unlikely that the RIAA will sic the legal rottweilers onto them.

Remember: the purpose of a lawsuit, as L. Ron Hubbard said, is not to win, but to harrass, intimidate and destroy your enemies.

Posted by: gjw | http://the-fix.org | Tue Feb 25 11:44:52 2003

Didn't the RIAA fight the first mp3 player (The Rio?) in court, and lose? If so, it set a legal precedent, and I'd assume the same ruling would have to apply to OGG, unless the RIAA can approach the issue from a different angle.

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Tue Feb 25 12:26:56 2003

True, but then MP3 was established. OGG isn't (except among a few Linux zealots) which may be enough to not get the case summarily dismissed, and to cost the defendant a few million and drive down the value of their stock.

Want to say something? Do so here.

Note to spammers: This comment system applies the rel=nofollow attribute to the poster's URL and all links. Posting links to this page will not improve their search engine rankings.

Display name:
URL:(optional)
To prove that you are not a bot, please enter the text in the image on the right in the field below it.

Your Comment:

Remember my details.

Please keep comments on topic and to the point. Inappropriate comments may be deleted.

Note that markup is stripped from comments; URLs will be automatically converted into links.