So when and who authorised non-free formats?
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Michael Dale mdale@wikimedia.org Date: 2 February 2013 16:25 Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] Audio derivatives, turning on MP3/AAC & mobile app feature request. To: Wikimedia developers wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org Cc: Jan Gerber j@thing.net
+correct content-type this time ;) Note this has already been merged, but still worth mention for visibility.
On 2/1/13 12:10 PM, Michael Dale wrote:
We are about to merge in support for audio derivatives to Timed Media Handler (TMH). The big value here, I think is encoding to AAC or MP3 and adding a /listen to this article/ feature to the mobile app. https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/39363/
This can really help with improving accessibility of Wiktionary pronunciation media files as well.
Also AAC / m4v ingestion, could make audio recordings a lot easier to import into the site, i.e a "record a reading of this article" mobile app feature #2 ;)
There are already thousands of spoken articles, with some promotion their could probably be a lot be more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Spoken_articles
The software patent situation for mp3 is sad, considering how long the mp3 format has been around: http://www.tunequest.org/a-big-list-of-mp3-patents/20070226/
I think AAC is a similar situation, encoder wise: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding#Licensing_and_patents
But fundamentally Wikimedia is not "distributing" these encoders and there are no royalties for media distribution. Likewise we are not shipping decoders ( the decoders are in browser or the mobile OS )
I don't know why Wikimedia's commitment to being accessible in royalty free formats, somehow also precludes making content accessible for folks on platforms that ~don't~ decode royalty free formats. But hopefully we can change that over time.
Not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I hope we could come out of this thread with rough consensus to enable these formats to help increase the reach of audio works.
peace, --michael
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It was not and has not yet been decided afaik. This is just another recommendation that we do so. Last I heard on these lists, was legal was looking into as a prerequisite to inform any decision. Someone from the foundation can probably make a more official comment.
--michael
On 2/2/13 2:31 PM, David Gerard wrote:
So when and who authorised non-free formats?
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Michael Dale mdale@wikimedia.org Date: 2 February 2013 16:25 Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] Audio derivatives, turning on MP3/AAC & mobile app feature request. To: Wikimedia developers wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org Cc: Jan Gerber j@thing.net
+correct content-type this time ;) Note this has already been merged, but still worth mention for visibility.
On 2/1/13 12:10 PM, Michael Dale wrote:
We are about to merge in support for audio derivatives to Timed Media Handler (TMH). The big value here, I think is encoding to AAC or MP3 and adding a /listen to this article/ feature to the mobile app. https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/39363/
This can really help with improving accessibility of Wiktionary pronunciation media files as well.
Also AAC / m4v ingestion, could make audio recordings a lot easier to import into the site, i.e a "record a reading of this article" mobile app feature #2 ;)
There are already thousands of spoken articles, with some promotion their could probably be a lot be more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Spoken_articles
The software patent situation for mp3 is sad, considering how long the mp3 format has been around: http://www.tunequest.org/a-big-list-of-mp3-patents/20070226/
I think AAC is a similar situation, encoder wise: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding#Licensing_and_patents
But fundamentally Wikimedia is not "distributing" these encoders and there are no royalties for media distribution. Likewise we are not shipping decoders ( the decoders are in browser or the mobile OS )
I don't know why Wikimedia's commitment to being accessible in royalty free formats, somehow also precludes making content accessible for folks on platforms that ~don't~ decode royalty free formats. But hopefully we can change that over time.
Not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I hope we could come out of this thread with rough consensus to enable these formats to help increase the reach of audio works.
peace, --michael
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On 2 February 2013 19:38, Michael Dale mdale@wikimedia.org wrote:
On 2/2/13 2:31 PM, David Gerard wrote:
So when and who authorised non-free formats?
It was not and has not yet been decided afaik. This is just another recommendation that we do so. Last I heard on these lists, was legal was looking into as a prerequisite to inform any decision. Someone from the foundation can probably make a more official comment.
It was the bit where you said you were about to commit it.
Michael, we've been around this at least twice now. Do you remember what was said those times, or is this futile?
- d.
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