In article
,
D Peter Maus wrote:

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.

Building a receiver for your own use should not be a problem. The
licensing is for commercial enterprises. He would not be able to sell
the information either but could offer it for free. That would be a
design he came up with not a copy of the design kit offered by IBiquity.

I don't know if the digital stream is scrambled. That might be a problem.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California