China recently circulated a draft regulation regarding the use of patents in Chinese national standards. The regulation demands that for patents to be eligible for incorporation in standards, they must be made irrevocably available royalty free or for a nominal fee. This will have dramatic consequences for foreign and domestic innovators.
The royalty-free option is exactly what free software needs, and what patent holders have been fighting against so hard in the West (nominal fee is still problematic, though).
The interesting thing is that as China becomes the world's biggest market, what happens there will inevitably affect elsewhere. So this is by no means a parochial issue. (Via @zoobab.)
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Musicalise.me represents a new concept in the world of royalty free music marketplaces. Rather than a set price for licenses, visitors to this royalty free music library can actually choose how much they wish to pay to license each individual track. Granted, there is a minimum fee of $1 for every track, but considering that this covers a license for unlimited usages this is truly Royalty free.
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