If you have heard of Ogg (or Ogg Vorbis, the free substitute MP3 codec), chances are that you have run into it when installing a game, though open source fans may have found it through other methods.   It is popular with gaming companies because there are no licensing fees required to be able to use it.  So how is it that Nokia is under the impression that it is “free” in quotes, not simply free, and why do they seem to think that the use of Ogg may cause patent disputes?  Ars Technica delves into the confusing missive that Nokia sent to the W3C about HTML5 and Ogg.

“The World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, a group devoted to publishing web standards, recently moved to approve the Ogg video and audio formats for inclusion into the forthcoming HTML5 standard. Nokia, maker of mobile phones and mobile multimedia services, has taken exception to this proposal, writing a position paper (PDF) and raising a formal issue at the W3’s web site, claiming that Ogg support should be “deleted” from the spec in order to “avoid any patent issues.”

Most people, if they recognize Ogg at all, would consider it to be an open-source counterpart to proprietary multimedia technology, so what exactly is going on here?”

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