Re: [rtcweb] Current H.264 licensing practice

Tim Panton new <thp@westhawk.co.uk> Fri, 08 November 2013 16:27 UTC

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From: Tim Panton new <thp@westhawk.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: <CAM5V9Z8E_tmoApFcVwVLbWZ6=wyz+Lrif-vPYy7ifGpdxmnDBg@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 16:24:53 +0000
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References: <CAM5V9Z8OxHFnnTUDX96mD0ixyHu+ikuDPzmiMz6ZSbF6oU2eNQ@mail.gmail.com> <87bo1vbekd.fsf@mid.deneb.enyo.de> <CAM5V9Z8E_tmoApFcVwVLbWZ6=wyz+Lrif-vPYy7ifGpdxmnDBg@mail.gmail.com>
To: David Benham <dabenham@gmail.com>
Cc: rtcweb@ietf.org
Subject: Re: [rtcweb] Current H.264 licensing practice
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On 8 Nov 2013, at 16:14, David Benham <dabenham@gmail.com> wrote:

> That's not how most anti-trust friendly patent pools work; certainly not this MPEG-LA one.   The T&Cs are what they are and related royalty liabilities, if any, are what they are.   They do not change at the whim of a single, major patent owner; instead several dozen must agree.  Thus, its very difficult change them, providing lots of stability -- to look at the bright side -- and that makes the summary document you dismissed nearly timeless.  
> 
> The T&Cs and royalty liabilities do not change per licensee (ergo, not negotiated) .   They are not dependent on bandwidth rates either.   In this case, the licensors also bound themselves to be unable increase royalties by more than 10% every five years (...suspect Cisco can handle that).    Providers of on-demand titles and/or broadcast TV over the Internet with greater than 100K subscribers and remuneration (aka, subscription or ad revenue) are the only service providers with royalty liabilities.   If still unconvinced, ask for the full license doc and/or call MPEG-LA to seek further clarity.  
> 


Interesting datapoint on the >100K subscribers front.  From Flurry - (via @BenedictEvans) There are at
least 800 app developers with > 1M subscribers. So there seem to me to be quite a few 'Little guys' who
may avoid webRTC if it requires an H264 license . 

http://blog.flurry.com//bid/102208/the-mobile-content-exlposion

[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