Apple heeft z'n plannen wat betreft de FireWire licensies aangepast. Aanvankelijk hadden ze het idee opgevat om voor iedere FireWire poort een dollar te beuren, maar daar zijn ze inmiddels na veel kritiek op terug gekomen. De Appel was weer eens rot...
The company today announced it was forming a 'patent pool' with key FireWire licensees Compaq, Sony, Matsushita/Panasonic, Philips and Toshiba. Together, the six companies will develop and implement a collective licensing programme.In effect, the move takes Apple's FireWire intellectual property and shares it out among the six companies, though whether they each have an equal share isn't known.
The announcement follows the widespread criticism targeted at Apple earlier this year when it emerged the company was charging newer licensees a $1-a-port royalty (see Apple caught charging crafty FireWire fee). Numerous PC manufacturers and peripheral vendors claimed the company was unjustified in seeking a royalty for FireWire, since, as IEEE1394, it was an open standard.
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