[Advocate Play Ogg] Ask This American Life to PlayOgg!

[John Sullivan]

>From http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/tal-when-patents-attack:

    'This American Life' did some great reporting about software
    patents. Ask them to help solve these problems and offer the show in
    patent-free formats.

This American Life[1] is a radio show that airs weekly on public stations
throughout the United States. Their recent episode "When Patents
Attack!"[2] covers a story that's familiar to many of us. In an hour-long
show, they explain what patent trolls do, illustrate how patent
litigation and threats hamper software development, and investigate the
inner workings of one particularly notorious troll company, Intellectual
Ventures.

We've been talking about the dangers of software patents for a while
now, from essays like Richard Stallman's "Patent Reform Is Not Enough"[3]
to the End Software Patents wiki[4] and the Patent Absurdity film[5]. "When
Patents Attack!" is helping to spread the word about these same issues.
Reporter Laura Sydell and producer Alex Blumberg track the history of
one specific Intellectual Ventures patent, and the effort makes for a
memorable story. (Our executive director John Sullivan was also
consulted a few times over the course of the show's production.) As
always, we learn that only a few patent holders benefit from software
patents; developers and users suffer because some software techniques
simply can't be used, and the price of computer products goes up to
cover the costs of patent licensing or litigation.

Reporting like this can help us raise awareness about the problems with
software patents, and build support for abolition. But This American
Life could also take more direct action to help tackle this issue.
Downloads and streams of the show are available in MP3 format. Even
though MP3 is ubiquitous, it's patent-encumbered, and the patent holders
haven't been shy about litigating it. In one prominent example, Lucent
filed suit claiming that Microsoft infringed MP3-related patents, and
won a record-breaking $1.52 billion in damages in the initial trial
(they later settled without disclosing financial terms).

This American Life could have even more of an impact by making the show
available in a format like Ogg Vorbis, which was designed with an eye
toward avoiding patent risks.

  * Please join us as we thank the TAL production crew for their
    reporting in "When Patents Attack!", and ask them to make the show
    available in Ogg Vorbis -- removing the requirement that people
    follow MP3 patent terms in order to listen. You can reach them by
    email at address@hidden (and CC or BCC us at address@hidden).
    If you're on Twitter (please don't join on account of us), you can
    direct your comments to @NPRamericanlife.

When patent-encumbered media formats become common, it can hinder free
software adoption; people are less likely to switch to free software if
they have trouble listening to music or watching videos when they do.
Fortunately, there's been a lot of good news on this front in the past
few years. Boston public radio station WBUR started providing an Ogg
Vorbis stream[6] after we petitioned them, and the Google-led push behind
the WebM format[7] offers new promise for free video. This American Life
has helped illustrate how these issues affect all of us -- now let's
encourage them to help out and be part of the solution.

  * Share this story with your social networks: http://ur1.ca/4ty99

[1] http://www.thisamericanlife.org/
[2] 
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/441/when-patents-attack
[3] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/patent-reform-is-not-enough.html
[4] http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Software_patents_wiki:_home_page
[5] http://patentabsurdity.com/
[6] http://www.fsf.org/news/wbur-streams-ogg-vorbis
[7] http://www.fsf.org/news/supporting-webm

-- 
John Sullivan
Free Software Foundation
Executive Director
GPG Key: 61A0963B

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