# Microsoft Ordered to Pay... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 23, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-ordered-to-pay/393407 "2007-02-23T17:43:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-ordered-to-pay/393407/1 "2007-02-23T17:43:35Z")
The Largest Patent Settlement in History (pending appeal). [News Story](http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/23/yourmoney/msft.php) > [@](#): > > The ruling, in U.S. District Court in San Diego on Thursday, was a victory for Alcatel- Lucent, the networking equipment company. Its forebears include Bell Laboratories, which was involved in the development of MP3 almost two decades ago. > > At issue is the way the Windows Media Player software from Microsoft plays audio files using MP3, the most common method of distributing music on the Internet. If the ruling stands, Apple and hundreds of other companies that make products that play MP3 files, including portable players, computers and software, could also face demands to pay royalties to Alcatel. Assuming the decision is upheld against Microsoft’s appeal, how will this affect the MP3 player market? Given that the patents are apparently almost two decades old, they will be expired in a couple of years. But will the player manufacturers elect to pay royalties during that interim or get out until it’s free? ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-ordered-to-pay/393407/2 "2007-02-24T03:29:03Z")
Interesting. I wonder if this will really push the acceptance of a new codec. MP3 is quite old and not especially good at what it does, it just has tons of momentum. ---
**Author:** ![holy.roller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b38774/32.png) [@holy.roller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holy.roller)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-ordered-to-pay/393407/3 "2007-02-24T03:59:41Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] Interesting. I wonder if this will really push the acceptance of a new codec. [/QUOTE] I think Apple’s AAC will get a big boost, considering the popularity of iPods and how easily convert mp3s to aac in iTunes. ---
**Author:** ![holy.roller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b38774/32.png) [@holy.roller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holy.roller)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-ordered-to-pay/393407/4 "2007-02-24T04:00:57Z")
…how easily _you can_ convert… ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-ordered-to-pay/393407/5 "2007-02-24T06:26:45Z")
[QUOTE=holy.roller] I think [del]Apple’s[/del] AAC will get a big boost, considering the popularity of iPods and how easily convert mp3s to aac in iTunes. [/QUOTE] AAC is an international standard developed by [MPEG](http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/technologies/summary.htm#Advanced_Audio_Coding) working with various companies (hopefully none of which will sue). The DRM-wrapped songs that Apple sells on the iTunes Store are in AAC. The DRM (Fairplay) is proprietary to Apple, though. AAC is a pretty decent candidate for replacing MP3. Ogg Vorbis is another option, for an open-source candidate which may make it harder to be sued.