In article ,
"Aztech" wrote:

"Telamon" wrote in
message
I see that they are still lying about this on the web page.

"DRM is the world's only non-proprietary, universally standardized
on-air system for short-wave, medium-wave/AM and long-wave. The DRM
consortium does not endorse or certify products. Links to products
are listed on the DRM web site at the discretion of the DRM
consortium. The DRM Consortium is not responsible for the content
of external internet sites."

The decoding software was proprietary and as far as I know it still
is in part at least.

It depends on the definition, when it comes to broadcast or telecoms
hardware non-proprietary means it's based on a published open
standard (usually ISO/ITU approved) that any company is free to
implement, for instance many companies produce their own AAC
implementations with specific performance and quality tweaks, but the
bitstream that comes out of each implementation is exactly in spec.

There is of course a combination of patent and royalties concerns,
however MPEG-LA have to licence each indiscriminately and on equal
terms. Compare that to MS where they control the standard, which may
not even be (fully) published, they produce the encoders and decoders
with any input from competition companies, and they licence the
actual codec in final form rather than just charge royalties on some
of the patents behind that. (MS have tried to rectify some of this by
getting SMPTE to rubberstamp WM9)

MPEG2 for example isn't a "free" standard, royalties must be paid
whilst the underlying patents are in force, however there are
thousands of companies who have produced their own implementation,
there are hundreds of vendors that produce silicon so there is
immense competition, and no one company can control the standard.

AAC+ may not be free but that doesn't necessarily mean it's
"proprietary" in the above context.

OK, here is my simple definition of proprietary in and out of context.

It is the public domain or it is not.

Some of the software that is used in DRM requires a license.

If it requires a license that you must agree to in order to use it then
it is proprietary.

The license MEANS that they are reserving the rights to the use of that
software. Please tell me this point is not lost by you?

This license can be revoked at any time or they can start charging for
its use or they can limit the conditions of use or whom may use it and
any other circumstance you can think of.

You must obey the rights of the owner of the software or the courts will
fine you and the cops will put you in jail depending on the
circumstances.

No thank you DRM!

--
Telamon
Ventura, California