[M4IF Discuss] Apple settles MPEG-4 dispute?

[Craig Birkmaier]

At 10:26 PM -0700 6/5/02, Rob Koenen wrote:
>This thread is becoming questionable. The fact that people know
>each other means nothing. To suggest that people cut deals under
>the table shows (to put it extremely mildly) unfamiliarity with
>the issues and liabilities at hand.
>
>Let's close this thread.

  Not quite yet...
Actually Jeff may have raised some interesting points. Apple has a 
significant pool of intellectual property to use at the bargaining 
table. It would appear that Apple is very much in the mode of 
providing the basic version of the QuickTime players free, just as 
portions of the OS are now Open Source.  And I have seen no 
indication that Apple seeks royalties for the QuickTime file format, 
which has a great deal of overlap with the the Mpeg-4 File Format.
In a very real sense, QuickTime already represents a royalty pool. 
Because of the plug-in architecture, Apple licenses many technologies 
for use within the QuickTime Architecture - MPEG-4 is just another 
set of codecs and tools to be included in this pool. I can easily 
imagine Apple offering an all encompasing QuickTime license that 
would include a range of third party IP such as MPEG-4, along with 
some of the Apple IP incorporated iin QuickTime.
-- 
Regards
Craig Birkmaier
Pcube Labs