Kiss Technology

Kiss Technology
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	entertainment technology
Founded	United States
Headquarters	United States
Parent	Cisco Systems
Website	www.kissnordic.dk

Last updated April 15, 2019

Kiss Technology is an entertainment technology company based in Denmark. It was acquired by Cisco Systems on July 22, 2005.^[1]

Entertainment technology is the discipline of using manufactured or created components to enhance or make possible any sort of entertainment experience. Because entertainment categories are so broad, and because entertainment models the world in many ways, the types of implemented technology are derived from a variety of sources. Thus, in theatre, for example, entertainment technology practitioners must be able to design and construct scenery, install electrical systems, build clothing, use motors if there is scenery automation, provide plumbing, etc. In this way, the entertainment technology field intersects with most other types of technology.

Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country and the southernmost of the Scandinavian nations. Denmark lies southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and is bordered to the south by Germany. The Kingdom of Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark proper consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, Funen and the North Jutlandic Island. The islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. Denmark has a total area of 42,924 km² (16,573 sq mi), land area of 42,394 km² (16,368 sq mi), and the total area including Greenland and the Faroe Islands is 2,210,579 km² (853,509 sq mi), and a population of 5.8 million.

Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate headquartered in San Jose, California, in the center of Silicon Valley. Cisco develops, manufactures and sells networking hardware, telecommunications equipment and other high-technology services and products. Through its numerous acquired subsidiaries, such as OpenDNS, WebEx, Jabber and Jasper, Cisco specializes into specific tech markets, such as Internet of Things (IoT), domain security and energy management.

In January 2004 the open-source MPlayer project accused the then Danish DVD player manufacturer, Kiss Technology, of marketing DVD players with firmware that included parts of MPlayer's GPL Licensed code. The implication was that Kiss was violating the GPL License, since Kiss did not release its firmware under the GPL license. The response from the managing director of Kiss, Peter Wilmar Christensen, offered as explanation of the similarities that the MPlayer team had in fact used code stolen from Kiss's firmware, while the release timeline of MPlayer and Kiss firmware does not support such a statement.^[2]

MPlayer free and open source media player

MPlayer is a free and open-source media player software. It is available for Linux, OS X and Microsoft Windows. Versions for OS/2, Syllable, AmigaOS, MorphOS and AROS Research Operating System are also available. A port for DOS using DJGPP is also available. Versions for the Wii Homebrew Channel and Amazon Kindle have also been developed.

Firmware low-level software traditionally held in ROM

In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for the device's specific hardware. Firmware can either provide a standardized operating environment for the device's more complex software, or, for less complex devices, act as the device's complete operating system, performing all control, monitoring and data manipulation functions. Typical examples of devices containing firmware are embedded systems, consumer appliances, computers, computer peripherals, and others. Almost all electronic devices beyond the simplest contain some firmware.

The GNU General Public License is a widely-used free software license, which guarantees end users the freedom to run, study, share and modify the software. The license was originally written by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project, and grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the Free Software Definition. The GPL is a copyleft license, which means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD licenses and the MIT License are widely-used examples. GPL was the first copyleft license for general use.

Notes

↑ "Cisco Agrees to Buy Video Recorder Maker". Los Angeles Times. July 23, 2005. Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose agreed to buy Kiss Technology for $61 million, setting up a battle with TiVo Inc. in the market for digital video recorders.
↑ "MPLAYERHQ:HU _ THE MOVIE PLAYER FOR LINUX (via the Wayback Machine)". 2004-01-10. Archived from the original on 2004-04-09. Retrieved 2008-11-14.

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[1] "Cisco Agrees to Buy Video Recorder Maker". Los Angeles Times. July 23, 2005. Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose agreed to buy Kiss Technology for $61 million, setting up a battle with TiVo Inc. in the market for digital video recorders.

[2] "MPLAYERHQ:HU _ THE MOVIE PLAYER FOR LINUX (via the Wayback Machine)". 2004-01-10. Archived from the original on 2004-04-09. Retrieved 2008-11-14.