Comments to draft-ietf-pkix-logotypes-05.txt

[David Maurus <lists@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Two comments to the current draft:

*** 3rd paragraph on page 7: There's a typo
"...Compliant application MUST display and play more just one (or none) of the images and one (or none) of the audio sequences at the same time."

Presumably this should be "display and play just one", or perhaps "display and play more than just one" ?


*** 4th paragraph on page 9: Unfortunate use of patent-encumbered formats
'Implementations that support audio MUST support the MP3 audio format (with a MIME type of "audio/mpeg").'

I would propose to make MP3 optional, and make OGG VORBIS ("audio/x-vorbis") a MUST

Proposed wording:
'Implementations that support audio MUST support the OGG Vorbis format (with a MIME type of "audio/x-vorbis"), and might support the MP3 audio format (with a MIME type of "audio/mpeg")'

The reasoning behind my proposal is that otherwise
=> Selling any software capable of playing this extension would be subject to mp3 licensing terms, i.e. would require obtaining a license from Thomson.
=> While currently, Thomson does not charge licensing fees for *freely* distributed player software, this might change in the future. This would make it illegal to use free / Open Source software supporting the logo extension without having a license from Thomson.
=> Selling hardware (Personal Trusted Devices?) playing logotype-audio would be commercially unattractive 

Ogg Vorbis is considered patent free, offers better quality than mp3 according to recent studies, and is available in numerous free implementations and as source code with a BSD style license.

Best Regards,
David