[aprssig] OT: DV Dongle a D-Star codec on USB.
Scott Miller
scott at opentrac.org
Tue Jul 8 18:30:10 EDT 2008
> Owning an AMBE vocoder is like buying a font for your word processor.
> You can't copy it and resell it, but you can purchase it and you can
> use it anyway you want. Microsoft can't sell you a font, then tell
> you it can't be used to write a ham radio club newsletter.
And if you read the license agreement that came with your word
processor, it probably says something about not using it in weapons
systems, nuclear power, life support, and so on (see the Sun Java
license for an example). My point was that if DVSI so chose, they could
add a clause to the AMBE license agreement (it's in the AMBE2000
datasheet, check it out) that would preclude amateur use for future
applications. I'm sure previously sold devices would be fine, but when
they own the IP, they make the rules on licensing.
Of course, that would be a stupid thing for them to do, but I'm hoping
to get my point across that we're entirely at the mercy of one company
for all things D-STAR, and from what I can tell it's not a particularly
friendly company.
Who knows... maybe a few years from now AMBE will have fallen out of
favor in commercial circles, DVSI will go out of business, and some
vulture IP firm will buy up AMBE and decide to squeeze whatever extra
revenue they can out of the hams that are still locked in to the system...
Scott
N1VG
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