Microsoft fined $1.5 Billion

[Boozer]

I personally think this is crazy. Does this mean that Apple and every other company who has been selling MP3 software and components is also going to be sued? How could they get fined for something they were under the impression was being done legally?
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Microsoft was yesterday fined a record $1.52bn (£777m) for infringing a digital music patent which could throw into doubt the future of the digital music industry.
A San Diego court ruled that the software giant has infringed patents, owned by Franco-American technology firm Alcatel-Lucent, which cover the conversion of audio tracks into the popular MP3 file format which is used by hundreds of companies and millions of music listeners.
Alcatel-Lucent was last night mulling whether to order Microsoft to stop using the technology.
Immediately after the verdict, Microsoft said it will appeal against the decision and the biggest fine ever awarded by an American jury for patent infringement.
The company added that the ruling paves the way for Alcatel-Lucent to bring the digital music industry to a grinding halt. "We are concerned that this decision opens the door for Alcatel-Lucent to pursue action against hundreds of other companies who purchased the rights to use MP3 technology from ... the industry-recognised rightful licensor," said Microsoft's deputy general counsel Tom Burt.
The case dates back to 2003 when Lucent sued two PC manufacturers - Gateway and Dell - over a range of patented technologies including MP3. Microsoft replaced the two companies in the case because it was technology employed in its Windows operating software that was at the core of the dispute.
Microsoft licenses MP3 audio conversion technology from a German researcher, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. Fraunhofer helped develop MP3 audio-compression technology with Bell Labs, which used to be part of Lucent, and is considered to be the industry-standard licensor of the technology.
"The damages award seems particularly outrageous when you consider we paid Fraunhofer only $16m to license this technology," said Mr Burt. "Today's outcome is therefore disappointing for us and for the hundreds of other companies who have licensed MP3 technology."
The fine could have been three times larger if the court had decided that Microsoft wilfully infringed the patent.

[Daytona100]

Chump change for Bill Gates!!!!!!!!!!

[BiggusJimbus]

Apple uses mp4.

[mbrown2]

Apple uses mp4.
Yeah, but when u burn a CD from Mp4 to CD Format out of ITunes and then rip the CD back in using ITunes...it converts to MP3 as an option...so there for, like Media player, is converting to MP3.

[78Eliminator]

Yeah, but when u burn a CD from Mp4 to CD Format out of ITunes and then rip the CD back in using ITunes...it converts to MP3 as an option...so there for, like Media player, is converting to MP3.
Funny, I have been doing this but never mentioned it because I thought there must be some converter program out there that everyone in the world knows about BUT ME. I guess it really is the easiest way until that magic software appears on the net.

[shueman]

They will beat it. The original MP compression codecs and code were originally public domain....much like jpeg.

[shueman]

Yeah, but when u burn a CD from Mp4 to CD Format out of ITunes and then rip the CD back in using ITunes...it converts to MP3 as an option...so there for, like Media player, is converting to MP3.
We do this will any iTunes purchase....:)

[78Eliminator]

They will beat it. The original MP compression codecs and code were originally public domain....much like jpeg.
It's really too bad there isn't more open source code software out there. Software evolves so much more intelligently when the effort is a world collaboration as opposed to just a few developers sitting in a building in Redmond, Washington.

[shueman]

It's really too bad there isn't more open source code software out there. Software evolves so much more intelligently when the effort is a world collaboration as opposed to just a few developers sitting in a building in Redmond, Washington.
Very much agree....Gates should release more things to the public domain and let the end users get 'em right for their particular needs...:idea:

[vee-driven]

limewire, its free!!!

[Ultrafied]

Very much agree....Gates should release more things to the public domain and let the end users get 'em right for their particular needs...:idea:
I have to laugh at this (not at you). Microsoft stole 60% of the software (including their OS) from others. They've welshed on almost every deal they have made to share intellectual properties and what they haven't been able to steal, they have put out of business.
Microsoft is here not because they are the best in technology (or even a leader) but because their marketing department was probably the best in the world. This department could create such hype, people would stand in lines to get the new product. They first gave away their software at such a discount, no reasonable business could keep up and then built on this new share of customers. Brilliant .... but never because their software was the best.
Oh well ... enough ranting. Personally, I hope MS gets their ass handed to them, but it has never come to pass in any of their other lawsuits...:D

[mbrown2]

Funny, I have been doing this but never mentioned it because I thought there must be some converter program out there that everyone in the world knows about BUT ME. I guess it really is the easiest way until that magic software appears on the net.
There is sw like tunebyte that will convert but for free it is just as easy to rib and burn....plus, Jobb's said he was getting out of the Digital Rights Management biz last week, but that was also prior the Microsoft lawsuit....would be fine day when ITunes would be open MP3's or open MP4...

[KLEPTOW]

I have to laugh at this (not at you). Microsoft stole 60% of the software (including their OS) from others. They've welshed on almost every deal they have made to share intellectual properties and what they haven't been able to steal, they have put out of business.
Microsoft is here not because they are the best in technology (or even a leader) but because their marketing department was probably the best in the world. This department could create such hype, people would stand in lines to get the new product. They first gave away their software at such a discount, no reasonable business could keep up and then built on this new share of customers. Brilliant .... but never because their software was the best.
Oh well ... enough ranting. Personally, I hope MS gets their ass handed to them, but it has never come to pass in any of their other lawsuits...:D
Here here..........
Love-it when people say MS has done so much for the computer industry, but they have no idea how much they will never see or do because of Bill Gates he is the biggest f*cken thief the world will ever know.

[One Particular Harbor]

Have friends that were at Xerox when Steve Jobs and the Apple crew "derived" their operating system from some of the Xerox interfaces of the time. They claim that Jobs spent a significant amount of time at their campus studying what they were doing.
Posting on a Mac now and think that Apple makes some of the best computers on the market. Love the form factor. But, singling out Microsoft isn't exactly fair in this industry. Additionally, you have to give Gates credit...originally identified a gap in the market and was really the first to concentrate on the PC OS. You may not like Microsoft, the corporation, but you have to give them credit as a marketing machine.
OPH

[Ultrafied]

Actually I don't have to give MS or Gates any credit. Most of our current basic PC hardware and software was derived from the Xerox and Bell labs (i.e. mouse, BIOS configuration, GUI guidelines, etc.) Gates concentrating on the PC market is a joke. IBM contracted Gates to come up with the PC OS. Gates and his partner did what they always did. Stole DR Dos and gave it glamourous error messages but the underling code was still DR DOS.
It was IBM's decision to let the PC architecture be open (biggest mistake ever) while Apple kept theirs proprietary. As far as Apples interface, look at MS's Windows 1 & 2. POS, never worked and really laughable. So many better interfaces out at the time. When MS get their look? Right after they partnered with Apple on intellectual property sharing. The only problem, it was one way ... to Microsoft. The partnership only lasted 6 months, then what happened? Windows 3.0. This was the interface that actually worked. The basic code was quite similar to Apples, imagine that. The difference was hardware capabilities (i.e. Motorola chip set versus Intel chip set).
IBM had contracted MS to code OS2 WARP (32 bit architecture). Well heck, that contract went out the Window. Didn't need IBM anymore since they now had a 8/16 bit OS to fill their coffers. In quite clear MS fashion, they took the original OS2 WARP code and gave it their own twist (NT).
Look at Vista. Anyone use both OS/10 and Vista? Well if you have, you will notice the "similarities", yet Vista is being tauted as ground breaking.
Everyone they have dealt with (except Intel) Microsoft has taken what they needed (i.e. stole) and never kept their end of the deal. The only thing MS has ever done for the consumer has standardized the home PC. The cost was they stifeled the imagination of the PC market. Of course, this is just my 2 cents.