[M4IF Discuss] RE: [M4IF News] To those concerned about MPEG-4 Licensing ...

[Fernando Pereira]

 Hi !
Yuval Fisher wrote:
> 
> >         As for me, I'm looking at MPEG-4 Part 10 and hoping that it is
> > patent-free ;-)
> 
> I wouldn't hold your breath. Many companies are nervous about submarine
> patents. There's a strong anti-free-license movement in MPEG.

 Let me disagree with this statement ! As the current chairman of MPEG
Requirements, I would claim that MPEG is doing everything to support the
royalty free approach for the baseline profile of MPEG-4 part 10 (AVC)
... and there is a very large support within MPEG members. Of course
there is also people with a (legitimate) different opinion but I would
personally claim this is a minority. 
 Let me also explain that the approach is not simply everything royalty
free but a combination of a royalty free baseline profile with other
more complex profiles not necessarily royalty free (but RAND). This
combination may provide a good compromise between the two possible
extreme alternatives.
 Finally let me inform that 2 profiles were defined for AVC/H.264 last
week in Fairfax: BASELINE (to be royalty free) and MAIN (not necessarily
royalty free).
 Regards
		Fernando Pereira
-- 
Fernando Manuel Bernardo Pereira, Ph.D., Professor
Instituto Superior Técnico - Instituto de Telecomunicações
Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, PORTUGAL
Phone:  + 351 21 8418460           Fax:    + 351 21 8418472
E-mail: Fernando.Pereira   lx.it.pt WWW: http://www.img.lx.it.pt/~fp/