As the screws tighten on MP3 and the intellectual-property barons
step up attempts to herd consumers into the black iron prison of
total access control,
Ogg Vorbis has reached version 1.0.
Ogg Vorbis is a compressed audio format believed to be superior to MP3 in
quality, and taking a firm stand against access control enforcement.
Expect the penguinheads to adopt it en masse, Microsoft to studiously ignore
it, Fraunhofer to make vague noises about patent violations, and the MPAA to
put pressure on manufacturers to not support this renegade format, or even on
ISPs to add .ogg files to their auto-delete list or face vague, insubstantial
threats of copyright infringement lawsuits. It'll be interesting to see how
this pans out: whether Ogg Vorbis will be confined to the penguinhead
underground or end up becoming the Next Big Thing.