MPEG-4 licensing

[macdaddy]

Saw this on /. this morning. The article (http://www.eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG20020131S0061) talks about fees for encoders, etc. I was wondering what effect this will have/might have on XviD...

[Doom9]

none really.. have you read the xvid license? it's an educational project.. nobody is supposed to use it for real... lame and other open source projects have used the same clauses to prevent legal action for patent infringement.

and I'm pretty sure that the licensing terms will have to be changed... 25cents for 1h private use? Sorry, but I wouldn't know anybody who would pay by the hour to be able to use mpeg-4.

[BlackSun]

Does somebody know how DivXNetworks paid the licensing fees for the free products (Codec) ?

[-h]

Venture capital money, I guess.

The licensing scheme is.. bizarre to say the least. Good thing we don't have to worry about it :)

-h

[BlackSun]

I've heard from somebody that fees are no more required for playback... hmmm anybody got information or it apply only to mpeg-2 (if it's true)

[Franko30]

Originally posted by Doom9
Sorry, but I wouldn't know anybody who would pay by the hour to be able to use mpeg-4.

Even a big company like Apple doesn't like the fee anoncements. They even delayed the release of their (ready to use) Quicktime6 because of that.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/02/13/041234&mode=thread

In my opinion that's what those fees are going to do: Hinder software development for streaming MPEG4.

That's what happens when somebody thinks "Hey, another great idea for getting money from the consumers!".

It's all part the new threat "Digital Rights Management". More money for the marketing companies, less rights for the consumers and even the artists.

To those of you that can understand German, I recommend an article on DRM on Telepolis:

Content is King! oder die Diktatur des Kleingedruckten

http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/11844/1.html

for those who only understand English, it's

Don't Read Aloud This Version of Alice in Wonderland

http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,22377,00.html


Frank

[-h]

In my opinion that's what those fees are going to do: Hinder software development for streaming MPEG4.

Or rather, hinder commercial software development ;)

Tools like MPEG4IP, XviD, etc. are going to be around regardless of the licensing committee's stupidity - I'm more worried about hardware manufacturers being scared off, thus leaving us to play MPEG4 content on hacked-up PS2's or Dreamcasts.

I haven't heard anything about hardware decoding fees, but I'm hoping they're not as woeful as the rest of MPEG-LA's revelations.

-h

[macdaddy]

I'm more worried about hardware manufacturers being scared off, thus leaving us to play MPEG4 content on hacked-up PS2's or Dreamcasts

This isn't going to delay the release of Sigma's X-Card next month, is it? I have one of these on preorder, and don't want to be on indefinite hold waiting for the thing to ship...