[ogg cantando]

Antes de mais nada, o gerundismo dos últimos três posts na verdade foi coincidência. Não pretendia fazer esta série de posts, eles foram casualmente aparecendo e achei divertido brincar com os títulos.

A notícia da vez é que o formato livre de compressão de arquivos de som e imagem conhecido como Ogg, que recebe apoio da Free Software Foundation e já foi objeto de um post neste blog (contando também com um link ali no canto direito do seu monitor), conquistou uma grande vitória na data de hoje em que a National Public Radio (NPR) WBUR Boston anunciou e simultaneamente começou a transmitir mundialmente a sua programação no formato livre. Os ouvintes de todo o mundo podem agora acompanhar a programação desta rádio em qualquer tocador, sem depender da aceitação de formatos privados sobre os quais foram concedidas patentes (mp3, wma, acc, realaudio, etc).

Certamente que a importância da escolha pelo formato livre não está no acesso livre à programação desta radio estadunidense, mas pela atenção que esta escolha dos dirigentes da radio vai trazer para a questão da liberdade nos formatos de compressão de conteúdo. Baby Steps.

A íntegra da notícia pode ser lida logo abaixo ou através deste link. Para ouvir um pouquinho de som livre, clique aqui.

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — May 14, 2008 — The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has marked a milestone in their PlayOgg.org campaign with the announcement that National Public Radio (NPR) news station WBUR Boston has begun worldwide webcasting in the free audio format Ogg Vorbis.

Robin Lubbock, WBUR’s director of new media said, “WBUR has a great schedule of news and information programming 24 hours a day, which we are very happy to make available to Ogg Vorbis listeners. It’s exciting to work with the Free Software Foundation to give a new audience the chance to listen to WBUR’s award winning programing as well as the wonderful programs from NPR and the BBC Worldservice that you can find daily on WBUR.”

Peter Brown, executive director of the FSF, responded to the news stating, “I would like to thank WBUR general manager Paul La Camera, for so graciously listening to the case we made for free audio standards. The leadership displayed by WBUR in providing a free audio format will help to bring this issue the national attention and recognition it deserves, and will serve as a vital step in educating the public and other publicly funded radio stations. We urge NPR listeners to stream WBUR’s Ogg Vorbis stream, and to acknowledge and thank WBUR for this work when making your contributions.”

Unlike MP3, Windows Media, Real Audio or Quicktime, Ogg Vorbis is not restricted by software patents. The threat of these patent lawsuits chills independent development of multimedia software tools. The use of unencumbered formats like Ogg Vorbis is necessary for providing access to publicly funded news and other programming without dependence on the patent-holding corporations and proprietary software vendors.

Patent-encumbered formats owned by companies like Microsoft and Apple require listeners to use non-free software; controlled by them, not by the users. They design their software to restrict the users and spy on their activities. If users choose Ogg Vorbis for audio and Ogg Theora for video, they can use many different media players, including free software designed to respect their freedom and privacy.

Joshua Gay, FSF campaigns manager explained the campaign, “[i]t is time for our publicly funded broadcasters to take seriously the impact their decisions to webcast only in proprietary formats have on the future of free unencumbered audio standards. Today, WBUR has made an important commitment to free standards, and we are now working with other publicly funded broadcasters to follow their example”.