[M4IF Discuss] MPEG-4 license fees: implementing

[Stef van der Ziel]

Hi lists,
Besides the yes-or-no discussion, I see a few practical problems with 
implementing the 2 cents per hour licensing scheme for MPEG-4:
- I can live with licensing on this basis (sure, it's more expensive 
than no fee but it's not a very expensive fee), *BUT ONLY under the 
condition that M4if provides me with accurate tracking and billing 
software that's easy to implement on any streaming box. You want me to 
handle tracking and billing? Give me all the tools I need. Don't make me 
pay/invest/develop or work overtime for handling your licensing fees.
This software should not just track and bill for the sum of streams, but 
on a per-user basis (since any streaming server can be a shared server 
instead of having just one owner!) I need to be able to bill on a per 
client / per stream basis because even our clients (mostly AV / TV 
companies, events, corporates and universities) use their accounts for 
multiple clients. So this system has to be very flexible and be able to 
run on W2000, Linux and MacOS X since all major streaming servers which 
intend to support MPEG-4 run on these platforms. Is it up to the 
developer of this streaming server software (say Apple with 
QuickTime/Darwin Streaming Server) to implement these tracking and 
billing features? IMO, M4if should ask a commercial company to invest 
and develop such tools. Let this company become a member of M4if so they 
can make a profit out of the fees.
- How can M4if tell the difference between a regular (quicktime) stream 
and a (quicktime) stream with mpeg-4 content?
- I understood that if the content is made available freely, that no 
fees will be charged? Is this true and if yes, how will M4if be able to 
tell the difference between paid and free content?
- Clients don't like post-calculated billing: they want to pay a regular 
monthly fee so they can budgetize in front for the whole year. This 
implicates that a streaming hosting account (which also includes 
services for Real, QuickTime and Windows Media streaming) will be more 
expensive even if the client doesn't use MPEG-4 at all. I'm interested 
in M4if's opinion here.
Stef
FYI: Two years ago, I developed a streaming server platform called 
Jet-Stream which supports QuickTime, Real and Windows Media streaming 
from one single box. Jet-Stream has quickly gained popularity overhere 
in the Netherlands because it's easy for multiple users which all can 
stream in any supported format from their private single FTP account. We 
provide these hosting facilities ourselves and also sell these systems 
to larger clients so they can have all of their students or employees 
stream from internal accounts. I anticipate full support for MPEG-4 
because Apple announced native support with DSS4/QTSS 4.
  P.S. I designed a very nice MPEG-4 logo some time ago. How do I jump on 
this licen$ing-owner$hip-wagon? ;-P