Tag Archives: formats

Trying to kill Theora – MPEG LA extends royalty free use of H.264 for Internet streaming

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So the MPEG LA has extended the royalty free life of Internet streaming H.264 video from the end of 2010 to the end of 2016. The majority of patents expire in 2028, so that will still give them plenty of time to collect on royalties, if we let them.

Make no mistake, this is about stifling the adoption of Theora in order to become the de-facto standard. MPEG LA is trying to kill Theora, but we must not let that happen! We need an open web.

If you use H.264 for ANY OTHER PURPOSE today, you still need a license. Yes, that means you Mr. Linux user ripping your DVD’s to H.264..

Norway 2010: Government websites must use open formats

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An interesting story of Norway enforcing public sector websites to use open formats, such as PDF and ODF for documents, in order to lower the bar for accessibility.

Taking effect from 1 January 2010 the content of public sector’s websites will be available in open formats. This new regulation will contribute to enhancing equal accessibility of users and suppliers to the information available on the websites of both central and local government.

This is something that Australia should also be doing.

Even Microsoft can’t get OOXML right..

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That’s right, even Microsoft can’t get their own data format right.

Readers commented on an article about 2008 Service Pack 2 that it broke their existing OOXML files:

I am having EXACTLY the same problem. It seems that any .pptx file created on my mac will not open. All .ppt files open fine. All .pptx files created on a PC open fine.

But, everything I was working on this morning no longer opens….what am I going to DO? I am totally screwed, can’t work at all……

Microsoft’s recommended fix? Un-install and re-install Office, but don’t do the updates. Re-create your files in their older non-OOXML formats.

Sure, they’ve now released a fix, but you have to wonder how something like this could get all the way through to the service pack. Oh wait…