David Eduardo wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...

Have our taste on HD Radio/IBOC, now ?

That one is over. Stations reaching about 80% of the population, with about
half the measured audience... 1,100 of them... are already on HD.



As long as we're all here, to discuss and....well,...pick at you, let
me ask you a question.

I went to a radio club meeting today. Not that I do radio clubs, but
these guys have been recruiting, and it was anotherwise slow day....

Well, during one of the discussions came up the subject of HD. And
echoing somethings I've been reading on other newsgroups, and hearing
about from more and more of my friends who frequent radio clubs, this
one got my attention. Two of the members were asking about cracks for
the decoding software/firmware on the chips. Apparently, one of them
believes he's sufficiently reverse engineered the hardware to the degree
that he's preparing to create his own design to accomplish the same
thing, ie, decode HD radio. In this way, he wouldn't be buying a
licensed HD receiver, but his goal is to have access to the HD channels,
using his own designs and his own firmware. (And he's working on both
AM and FM systems.)

So, here's the question: How would iBiquity police this? If he's
successful at desiging his own circuitry, and developing the firmware to
decode the proprietary channel, what's to really keep him from
publishing his findings, as did the numerous SCA adaptor designers who
published in Pop Comm and Pop Electronics in the 70's?

Now, the parallels have already been drawn between SCA and HD. But
there is a significant difference. SCA is a subscription service. HD is,
so far as has been claimed, not a subscription service. If the
programming is not proprietary, and not sold for a fee, then anyone can,
conceivably, access it by whatever means is available to them.
Currently, that's licensed iBiquity technology. But what if, as Linus
Torvalds did when he wrote Linux to permit stable computing without
dealing with MS and Windows, someone succeeds in creating an HD adaptor
which certifiably does NOT use iBiquity intellectual property? And what
if, as Torvalds did, he simply released his designs to the open source
community?

Would that really be infringement?

And if so, how would iBiquity enforce? Because once that Jeannie is
out of the bottle...NO one will be able to cover up her navel again.

If not infringement, how would iBiquity, or the stations making the
investment in iBiquity hardware, recover relief from the open source
solution?

If the programming is really for free, and not to be subscription
based, cannot anyone access it at will if they do so without infringing
on iBiquity's designs?

And if this is the case, is not the only solution left to iBiquity or
the stations investing in iBiquity licensed HD hardware subscription
based distribution...and subscription based keying of receiving hardware?

No matter what the plan is today, the spectre of subscription seems
to be an inevitable shadow on this technology.