Is MP3 Dead?
Saturday, February 24th, 2007On Feb 22 a federal jury in San Diego found Alcatel-Lucent to be the rightful holder of the MP3 patent and order the defendant in the case, Microsoft, to pay damages of $1.52 billion for lost royalties.
Microsoft is appealing the decision, but of more immediate concern is what does this mean for MP3 as the standard audio format? With this landmark verdict many companies will be looking at MP3 as a risk, one that is not worth it.
Perhaps Apple’s advocacy of the AAC format will finally take hold beyond the iTunes store and iPod.
Only time will tell.