On 08/24/2011 04:41 AM, Moises Silva wrote:
Hi Steve, long time no see.
On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 9:20 AM, Steve Underwood<steveu@coppice.org> wrote:
Sadly, for the specific case of AMR, you still need a license even with D500. It is my understanding that the patent holders of AMR did not allow including the licensing from the manufacturer, they rather want to deal with the end user. Can you explain how that works? There appears to be no way for an end user to licence AMR. I believe I have misused the term "end-user". I meant, our card is not considered an "end-user" product.
We did some research regarding this before we started selling our transcoding card. We contacted voice age which is responsible for licensing AMR (http://www.voiceage.com/amr_faqs.php). Because our product is a card and according to their criteria is not and end user product (but rather something that others use to build end-user products), we cannot include the licensing in the card and you have to contact them for licensing terms.
I believe that if we were shipping a box with the card included (let's say a PBX) we most likely would be able to include the licensing for AMR.
Note also that the license for AMR does not "unlock" any features of the card. The card can do AMR regardless of whether you have a license or not, but it is the same driving a car without a driver's license, you can do it, but it is illegal. As far as I know, you can't even licence AMR properly from Voice Age. I understand their patent pool is far from complete. Even their G.729 pool licencing, which is far more mature, can leave you getting unexpected letters from lawyers.
Steve