Last call for review comments for audio/sp-midi

[timo.kosonen at nokia.com]

Hi

>a) Is it correct that the specification is not available 
>online and is solely contained in one or more printed books, 
>orderable from http://www.midi.org/about-midi/docorder.shtml
>(if so, not necessarily a problem, just wanted to be sure that was the
>situation)

The specification is not available online by downloading but can be
ordered online from http://www.midi.org/about-midi/docorder.shtml. The
specification itself is in a printed form.

>b) What is the IPR licensing situation regarding the defining 
>specification. May it be freely implemented without roalty? if 
>so, please say so. If not, please give details of where the 
>relevant licenses may be obtained.

MMA IP Policy that applies in this case can be found in
http://www.midi.org/about-mma/policy.shtml

>c) Can you say a little more about
>
>  Many synthetic audio compositions have associated intellectual
>  property rights.  It is conceivable that the rights owners of sp-
>  midi content will want to protect their rights by applying
>  security mechanisms that prohibit the rendering of the content
>  without a legally acquired license to do so.
>
>and how that would affect a conformant reader of this media type?

The above does not affect an SP-MIDI conformant reader. The next
sentence states: "These mechanisms would be applied externally to the
Content-Type defined here; sp-midi content itself is not encrypted
internally." So if the content owner wants to encrypt SP-MIDI, it must
be wrapped inside something else, and then this wrapper is encrypted. In
that case, the whole package is not conformant to the sp-midi media
type, but only the SP-MIDI part inside.

-Timo