Jari Ketola
26 May 2001 15:19
Gracenote has acquired two new patents for delivering synchronized multimedia such as lyrics and album covers to the client software as it's playing a song.
With these latest patents Gracenote has control to both the information (the CDDB Compact Disc infromation database) as well as the services related to that information.
Earlier this month Gracenote sued CD-burning software developer Roxio for deciding to use FreeDB instead of the now commercial CDDB.
I'm rather disappointed with Gracenote/CDDB myself. Imagine the Red Cross turning from a non-profit organization to a company selling your free donations for a profit. Sounds fair, doesn't it? That's exactly what Gracenote is doing - taking thousands of hours worth of voluntary work, and turning it into a business.