Is H.264 a legal minefield for video pros? – CNET News

With all the hoopla around video codecs, both open and closed source, here’s a bit of reporting covering MPEG LA terms around what is poised to be the next great standard on the net, h.264. Why does this matter? Because of patents, someone has to pay when I produce a video for a client which is later sold. And there are always patents. This story certainly goes a long way to ease my own concerns over royalty payments to patent holders, particularly the last part, emphasis mine:

“Realistically, it’s unlikely that a consumer who unwittingly plays a video clip from an unlicensed source is going to be pursued by MPEG-LA or by patent owners. The legal framework for patent damages is different than it is in the copyright area, so you’re not likely to see lawsuits against ordinary consumers, like some of the highly publicized suits filed by the RIAA [Recording Industry of America] in the United States,” Homiller said.

Another way where professionals can get off the hook for payments is if the video is broadcast for free over the Internet. Earlier this year, MPEG LA extended through 2015 a provision that means streaming H.264 video over the Net requires no royalty payments as long as anyone can see the video without paying.

Microsoft confirms, kills Courier in one fell swoop

Yup, predictable. From Engadget:

It seems, however, that things just didn’t manage to take shape, and word was handed down very recently that the incubation period had reached its conclusion – sans product – and resources would be directed elsewhere.

As a final note, I still love my currently-available-in-stores iPad.

What Would Nick Denton Pay For These Things I Found In A Bar

I think this is the first thing I’ve posted about the lost iPhone. I was going to swear that I would make this the last thing I’d post on the lost iPhone too, but as the story goes on, it’s getting almost too interesting not to share. In the mean time, this is too good not to pass on.

How Much do Music Artists Earn Online? [INFOGRAPHIC]

This about hits my assumption that sticking with the independent route hits the sweet spot. More important is keeping a balanced portfolio and avoiding exclusives. Other artists out there seeing the same?

(thanks @CurtSiffert)

Thoughts on Flash

From Jobs missive on Flash today:

Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Of course, Adobe is going to make a great product for authoring in HTML5 and so on, because a great-big-non-trivial-part-of-the-business exists to do that. But by saying this out loud, Jobs just guaranteed that Adobe will be resentful the whole time.

chillout song :: zefrank.com

Reason #1,248 that Ze Frank is a classy guy.

On FiveThirtyEight: Double Down by the Numbers: Unhealthiest Sandwich Ever?

No, no it’s not the most disgusting thing you could eat today, but it’s still tremendously disgusting. Insofar as it’s a reach to find anything surprising here, I suppose I’m chewing on the point that the Big Mac is, in fact, less disgusting than the Double-Down.

26 Percent of Wired’s Mobile Traffic Comes From the iPad

Predictable, given the audience of Wired.com. Doubly predictable given how great browsing is on iPad with your fingers.

Panic – Transmit

Absolute dead-simple staple of my work. Transmit 3 is absolutely unparalleled. I pulled the trigger on Transmit 4 before I’d even launched it.

In which I wax on most everything but books on the device.

It’s been over two weeks that the iPad has been on the market in the US. I’m writing this post on the iPad, in fact, in a moving car on the way to Canyonville, Oregon for a lovely weekend at the casino with the wife and family. Cause, nothing says ‘vacation’ like the Seven Feathers for a family that doesn’t gamble or drink much.

As a strange aside, take a look at the Seven Feathers on Google maps; there is a crazy proximity to the cemetery right at the edge of the parking lot. I’m not much into the occult, but I saw Poltergeist.

I have read what I have to imagine now amounts to all of the iPad reviews. I’ve read the early ones calling the iPad a silly also-ran in a soon to be saturated market. I’ve read the reviews calling the thing an oversized iPod touch. I’ve read the ones calling it a game-changer, a magical tool that will change the way we live, raise our children, tame lions, and ride bikes. As much as I’ve been longing to get a few words out on the device, I didn’t feel like I would be able to add much to the discussion without actually — you know — using it for a while. So, here we are. Two weeks in and I think, now, I have something to say.

YouTube – The iPad DJ

This is fantastic. Destroy the Silence

DIRTY, DANGEROUS & DESTITUTE | NEW YORK IN THE 70s

If you’ve ever spent time in NYC, particularly if you did your time in NYC post 1990, you need to look at this series of photos. It’s funny — the New York I know is in there somewhere, if I look closely, but it’s different, an erie alternate reality of the New York that exists in my head.

More than a few years back, I was walking up 40th past Bryant Park with my boss at the time, Jay, and he said– “You wouldn’t even recognize this place back in the 70s… you’d have been tripping over hypodermic needles, and fighting off the hookers back then.  It was nasty, man.” A chort was about all I could muster-up as a response.

Major Update for Google Docs

This is generally terrific news. Google Docs is already great, but the learning curve has been tough for those unaccustomed to working in the cloud. The new interface and collaboration tools will ease that sell, I think.

Besides using a new infrastructure, the document editor and the spreadsheet editor will add many new features. The document editor has real-time editing, sidebar chat, a new commenting system, better formatting and an improved importing feature. The spreadsheet editor brings back auto-complete, adds a formula bar for editing cells and you can now drag and drop columns.

Twitter / AP Stylebook: Responding to reader input ….

Tide came in slow on this one.

Captivating Examples of Sleeveface Photography

Some of these things are really terrific. Worth exactly :42 of your day.