nancy_gohring
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Google puts open-source project back up

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May 6, 20082 mins

The CoreAVC-for-Linux project is back up days after it was pulled due to a DCMA complaint, which turned out to be erroneous

Google has reinstated an open-source project just days after pulling it in response to a copyright-related takedown notice.

The CoreAVC-for-Linux project at Google lets users run the proprietary CoreAVC codec in Linux players. CoreAVC, a high-definition video decoder, was written by CoreCodec and designed for Windows. CoreCodec sells the codec in two versions, one priced at $7.95 and another at $14.95.

In a letter dated April 30, CoreCodec’s CEO issued a formal takedown notice under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) to Google, charging the search giant with copyright infringement. Google subsequently removed the project from Google Code.

However, by Tuesday the project was available again. A brief note on the Google Code page for the project says : “Yes, we’re back. CoreCodec has given their blessing to this project.”

CoreCodec characterized the whole situation as a misunderstanding, although it also admitted that its initial charge was inaccurate. “In the end the counsel’s advice on what we were to do was out of scope (including copyright) when we looked at all the great feedback everyone has provided us. The DMCA does allow for reverse engineering for compatibility purposes and hence in the end no matter what the ‘other points’ are the DMCA takedown request was wrongly sent,” Dan Marlin, CoreCodec’s founder and CEO, wrote on the company’s forum.

Google, or at least the author of CoreAVC-for-Linux, seemed uninterested in getting into details of the incident. “Regardless of the cause, CoreCodec and I have resolved the conflict, and CoreAVC-for-Linux should be back online soon,” Alan Nisota, the author of CoreAVC-for-Linux, wrote on CoreCodec’s forum on Monday, before the project was reinstated.

nancy_gohring

Nancy Gohring is a freelance journalist who started writing about mobile phones just in time to cover the transition to digital. She's written about PCs from Hanover, cellular networks from Singapore, wireless standards from Cyprus, cloud computing from Seattle and just about any technology subject you can think of from Las Vegas. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Computerworld, Wired, the Seattle Times and other well-respected publications.

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