Xvid License clarification?

[trolleypop]

Hi,
Im new to a lot of this digital compression gaff and am on a steep learning curve but its important that I get the legal side of this ironned out.
I am using Director to make animations from bitmaps and compressing them using the Xvid codec within Director. These animations are then externally linked to a published shockwave projector file and commercially distributed on CDs for sale.(I have the relevant license from Macromedia)
Firstly do I need to obtain a license (from Xvid) to do this, and if so who do I contact? (the website has no details for anytype of payment system)
Secondly will I need to supply a copy of the Xvid codec to ensure the externally linked animations run on all computers and if so, do I need a license to do that?
Finally, would you recommend this proceedure using the Xvid codec?,I have done trial and error on a number of different codecs and have generally found that Xvid compresses the files the best-but is it stable and will I likely have problems with peoples' computers crashing using it or anything?
Thanks chaps.

[Nic]

licensing is always a tricky question, i'll try to answer to the best of my knowledge and hopefully that will get the ball rolling (as I'm a bit rusty on the issues):

"Firstly do I need to obtain a license (from Xvid) to do this, and if so who do I contact?"
No. The software is under the GPL license (you can google that for lots more information).

"Secondly will I need to supply a copy of the Xvid codec to ensure the externally linked animations run on all computers and if so, do I need a license to do that?"
Yes, they would need the XviD codec installed, or some other DirectShow MPEG-4 decoder. The license that you may/may not need to get would be from the MPEG-LA ( http://www.mpegla.com ). The information on the MPEG-4 Visual licensing isn't as obvious from there as it once was (also read: http://www.mpegla.com/news/n_04-04-29_m4v.pdf ).

"Finally, would you recommend this proceedure using the Xvid codec?"
It's a very solid codec, you may get problems, but that is the case with all formats. XviD tends to pretty sturdy.

Hope that helps a little,
-Nic