Talk:Letter to Nokia

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Revision as of 12:13, 19 June 2007 by Saoshyant (talk | contribs)
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Addressee of the letter

Saoshyant and Fp, thank you for your help with editing the letter. I just made some more adjustments, and as it is now I consider the letter more or less finished. The last question which remains is, to which person inside of Nokia, or which part of Nokia's organisation we should address this letter.

Of course we could address this letter to Nokia's customer service, but I have a feeling the letter would probably be cathing dust in a desk drawer. I was thinking, couldn't we address the letter to some part of Nokia's organisation or a person which has the authority to make decisions concerning the design of Nokia's cellphones, I want to address it to the 'insiders'.

Possibly there are some people who could help us with this. I received an reply to my e-mail to the advocacy list from Jeff Waugh (even though his reply was sent to the list, it does not appear in the list archives). AFAIK Jeff Waugh is involved with the GNOME Mobile & Embedded Iniative, which Nokia is involved with. Judging from what I read on Planet GNOME, Lucas Rocha is a GNOME developer which is employed by Nokia. Possibly we could ask these people for advice on what address we should direct our letter to.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Alexander van Loon 05:29, 17 June 2007 (PDT)

Actually, I'd like to discuss this over the list instead. I'm looking for someone within Nokia for contact. Likewise, we'll try to make a public annoucement at the time of publishing the letter.--Ivo 12:13, 19 June 2007 (PDT)

Legal concerns

Jeff Waugh mentioned in his e-mail (not visible in the list archives) that vendors are reluctant to ship Xiph codecs because their patent encumberances aren't clear. Brian Zisk mentions in his e-mail to the list that a law firm has done research on this. Possibly we could use this research as evidence that patent encumberances aren't a problem. I'll send an e-mail to Brian Zisk.

Does anyone else have any ideas on how we could provide evidence to Nokia in our letter that there won't be any legal problems?

Alexander van Loon 05:29, 17 June 2007 (PDT)

Unfortunately, due to how badly Software Patents work, it's impossible to provide a warranty that someone won't show up demanding for whatever unknown patent one day. Monty did his best to create Vorbis using patent-free and patent-expired technology. We also had a lawyer making an audit, which was positive for our cause. However unlikely, there's always that tiny little chance that some Alcatel may show up. If this will be the case, we'll go to court to make their patent claim invalid.--Ivo 12:13, 19 June 2007 (PDT)

Free Software Foundation's Play Ogg campaign

Possibly we could make a reference to their campaign? Maybe a reference to the campaign could add value to our letter?

Alexander van Loon 05:29, 17 June 2007 (PDT)

No, we will not link to PlayOgg EVER. We are working on a promotional huge project called SOM, and if people want to help us there, great, but promoting PlayOgg is the worst thing that may happen to Vorbis reputation.--Ivo 12:13, 19 June 2007 (PDT)