[M4IF Discuss] RE: [OpenDTV] News: Terms of MPEG-4 Visual Patent Portfolio Licen se Announced

[Rob Koenen]

> The fee would be prohibitively expensive  IF calculated based on:
> [Channels]  X  [programming hours]  X  [total subscribers]  X 
> [$0.02/hr] = usage fees

While not passing any judgement on the announced scheme at this moment,
the press release makes it somewhat clear that this is not the
way things will be calculated. 
"[... a surrogate (e.g., standard industry audience measurement) is 
  under consideration."
http://www.mpegla.com/news_release31Jan2002.html
But this is far from conclusive; what exactly the calculation *will* look
like is unclear - and MPEG-4's future depends on it.
It should also be noted that (AS FAR AS I UNDERSTAND IT) you pay *either* 
the encoder/decoder fee *or* the use fee, not both. You pay a use fee for
use of MPEG-4 "[...] in connection with which a service provider or content 
  owner receives remuneration as a result of offering/providing the video 
  for viewing or having the video viewed (including without limitation 
  pay-per-view, subscription and advertiser/underwriter-supported
services)."
To me that seems to include all free-to-air broadcasts ... 
You pay encoder/decoder fees for other services.
All this seems to imply a one-to-one link between the decoder and the 
service, which is not going to exist in this context of an open 
standard where any player can play any content -- so I wonder how this 
is going to be detailed.
Rob