
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