[rtcweb] Current H.264 licensing practice
Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de> Thu, 07 November 2013 19:30 UTC
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From: Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de>
To: rtcweb@ietf.org
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 20:30:31 +0100
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Subject: [rtcweb] Current H.264 licensing practice
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After reviewing the end-user patent licensing statements regarding H.264/AVC of various products (Microsoft Windows, Adobe Flash, a Canon camera, Skype, and some Cisco manuals), I'm puzzled what the net effect of the Cisco licensing effort will be. The most striking aspect of the current licensing regime is that the existing platform codecs are exclusively licensed for "personal, non-commercial activity". As far as I can tell, this means that I cannot use these codecs to develop my own software and distribute it without a separate MPEG LA license. Furthermore, if I engage in commercial activity involving H.264 streams (such as paid teaching or technical support over Skype, to give an example that seems fairly relevant to me), I need a separate license as well, even if I use already existing software for which the vendor has acquired patent licenses. This even applies to professional video (conferencing) equipment. I wonder what this means in the context of WebRTC. Would web application development be covered? What about commercial use of such web applications? Under the existing licensing practice, the answer appears to be that these activities need separate licenses. To me, that suggests that even after the Cisco effort, H.264 is still not a replacement for a royalty-free codec. Freedom from royalties for browser vendors is not sufficient if (web) application developers and end users do not benefit. (I know that the concrete licensing terms are not published yet, but I find it rather unlikely that Cisco has negotiated a better deal for the non-paying general public than for its own paying customers.)
- [rtcweb] Current H.264 licensing practice Florian Weimer
- Re: [rtcweb] Current H.264 licensing practice David Benham
- Re: [rtcweb] Current H.264 licensing practice Florian Weimer
- Re: [rtcweb] Current H.264 licensing practice David Benham
- Re: [rtcweb] Current H.264 licensing practice Tim Panton new