[mythtv-users] "Odometer" Threads

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Wed Feb 6 17:27:12 UTC 2008


Drew wrote:
>> Whoever granted that patent should be re-educated, as it is dated 1998
>> and such things were being done long before that. Clearly "prior art"
>> was totally ignored. Also the "obvious application of current
>> technology" idea should apply as well.
> 
> I'm no legal expert but it seems to me that there's a massive hole in
> the patent that any 'modern' PVR software could waltz right through.
> The patent specifies that the data moves through the system as an
> 'MPEG stream' BUT unlike the 'Input Module' there is no clause that
> broadens the choice of formats.
> 
> Couldn't someone just write a PVR system that uses, for example, xvid
> or h.264 and bypass the whole patent?

Good point, but h264 could be called an "mpeg stream", and remember that 
you would be dealing with a lawyers definition of "mpeg stream", not an 
engineer's definition.

If I were arguing the case I would claim that "MPEG" has become a 
generic term that means "compressed video".

But my point was that we should think before freely giving out 
information of any kind without knowing what purpose it will be put to.

A statement here from the OP as to the intended use of the data might be 
useful. Of course anybody else could grab the data, no matter how 
well-intentioned the OP was. That's why I suggested earlier that perhaps 
it should be reported directly to the OP, not broadcast on a worldwide list.

beww


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