Resolutions of the 11th (Awaji) MPEG-4 Industry Forum Meeting

1. Quorum:There are 81 Full Members and 5 Associate Members in good standing as of 14 December, 2002. Quorum requires 30% of members in good standing to be at the meeting.

   30 member companies attended the 11th Meeting, of which 3 by phone and quorum was achieved.

2. New Members: The Membership and Nominating Committee accepted all applicants that have paid their dues and signed the Statutes as new members.

   The following companies and organizations joined M4IF since the 10th meeting:

   Advanced Micro Devices MediaQ Inc. Ahead Software Inc. Octaga AS Divio Pixtree Technologies Equator Technologies, Inc. Prodys face2face animation inc.

   RealNetworks FXPAL Sci-Worx GmbH Harmonic Inc. SHS Multimedia Hutchison Mediator US Inc STMicroelectronics Logitech

3. Audit of the Books: M4IF takes note of the preliminary, verbal report of the auditing committee for fiscal year 2001-2002 and is pleased to learn that the committee considers the finance and accounting operations of M4IF being handled properly. The General Assembly will approve the books for the Fiscal Year 2001-2002 when a physical review of the books is also positive.

   M4IF thanks the Audit and Finance Committee for its efforts to date.

4. Budget for 2002-2003: The General Assembly approves updated budget as presented by the Finance and Audit Committee and the Board of Directors (m4-out-20029).

5. Board of Directors: M4IF's General Assembly thanks Weiping Li for his dedication to M4IF's cause during his 2.5 year tenure as Director, and wishes him luck in his future endeavors. The General Assembly encourages the Board to fill the vacant Board Position as soon as possible.

6. MPEG Industry Forum: M4IF takes note of the ongoing discussions with people representing MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 interests, to come to a single MPEG Industry Forum. The General Assembly acknowledges the positive responses from the MPEG-7 community, and mandates the committee appointed at the 10th meeting to make a concrete proposal at the 12th M4IF meeting. The General Assembly (GA) encourages the Board to foster ways of cooperation in anticipation of a formal change in M4IF's Statutes. The GA reiterates the following assumptions:

   • Any change in M4IF's goals will preserve build-up in M4IF's brand recognition and goodwill.
   • The GA prefers to not have any increase in membership fees as a result of the change in structure, nor a decrease in fees to parties that are not interested in all of the MPEG standards whose interests the Forum would represent.

7. Personal M4IF Membership:The GA understands that it was not possible to create a personal membership without a change in the Statutes. The GA asks the BoD to prepare a change in the Statutes to be approved at the last meeting before the next fiscal year, where the following applies (a reiteration of resolution 8 of the 10th meeting):

   • The membership does not automatically renew;
   • Personal Membership requires Approval by the Board, who has full discretion to determine if an individual is eligible (i.e., supports M4IF's goals);
   • Personal Membership (like any membership) requires the M4IF Statutes to be signed by the individual in question.

8. Licensing M4IF thanks Andy Fischer and Jan van der Meer for their update on the status of licensing of the MPEG-4 technology. M4IF notes the following.

   • M4IF welcomes the fact that the Visual license is now available for review and signature. During the discussions, issues were raised as follows:
     • The terms in section 7 of the license raise concerns about the narrowly defined field of use compared to the original announcements in January and July
     • The onus that is apparently on the user to monitor that usage is within such a narrowly defined field;
     • The cost of the auditing needed to comply with the use fee terms may exceed the use fee itself;
     • Discomfort was felt with the fact that the license raises questions like these, so long after publication of the MPEG-4 Visual International Standard.
   • The MPEG-4 Systems License is still not available, but expected any day now. M4IF remains very concerned about the long time it is taking to make the license available. A concern was raised that the cost of a Systems License may significantly exceed the cost of an audio license for certain applications, notably downloaded PC software (this would, e.g., be an issue when one wanted to wrap the audio bitstreams in the MP4 file format);
   • An administrator for MPEG-4 Audio has been announced, and M4IF understands that the terms for the MPEG-4 Audio License will generally follow the models which have been announced for MPEG-4 AAC, by 5 licensors. M4IF remains concerned about the continuing absence of a definitive license that will give the market the necessary confidence to implement and deploy the technology.
   • M4IF understands that a call for essential patents has been released for the upcoming Advanced Video Coding standard. M4IF encourages all parties involved to move rapidly and make an exploitable license available to the market, taking to account issues and concerns raised in the context of similar licensing programs. M4IF also encourages licensors to give the market the confidence needed to start building and deploying the technology without delay.
   • The General Assembly encourages M4IF's Board to keep fostering discussions about MPEG-4's published licensing terms, and notes that these discussions are relevant to AVC licensing.
   • M4IF reiterates its stance that the market may benefit from having multiple, competing one-stop shops for joint license programs for essential MPEG-4 patents.

9. Marketing: M4IF approves the report of the Marketing WG, and asks the WG to update last year's Marketing Plan (m4-out-20005). The GA notes the following priorities for the marketing WG:

   • Focus on keeping membership informed about M4IF's activities;
   • Providing information about the upcoming AVC and AAC SBR technologies, and how they fit into the MPEG-4 framework
   • Licensing FAQ / White Paper
   • Improving the Products and Services pages on the website
   • Study the feasibility of an MPEG Webzine
   • Organization of WEMP 2003

10. Interop: M4IF thanks Jae-Seob, Sehoon, Ralph, Jeong-Hoon and Yuval and approves the report of the Interop WG, and the plans for the 5th round, as laid out in output document m4-out-20030 (to be completed by the Interop WG). An editing period of three weeks is granted for completion of this document. It will be circulated for approval on the Interop WG. Future Interop rounds will entail:

    • Publication, on M4IF's public website, of those companies that successfully complete the interoperability tests to which they have committed in a specific round;
    • Shorter rounds of about 2 months;
    • Implementation of a resolution process similar to the process used by IMTC for their interop testing.

11. Compliance Self-testing. M4IF thanks Paul Ritchie for his presentation on the status of the Self-certification program, and notes that there are still steps to be taken. The GA asks Paul and the interop WG to complete the program. Next Steps within the next 60 days include:

    • Study of similar programs by comparable organizations
    • Logo registration and legal counsel on Terms & Conditions for logo use and the exact language for any compliance 'claims'
    • Development of the webpage and administration
    • Financial analysis to determine proper 'price per logo' to implement the self-funding program.

12. M4IF Working Groups Status: (For mail lists and subscriptions, see M4IF website):

    The GA approves the consolidation of all patent reflectors into a single mailing list.

    Marketing
    Chair	Shawn Ambwani
    Mandate:	Update and carry out marketing Work Plan as in Resolution 9
    End date	12th General M4IF meeting
    Meetings	Bi-weekly phone conferences with meeting minutes & Action Item list
    Mail list	[email protected]

    
    

    Interop	Output document, m4-out-20030
    Chairs	Jae-Seob Shin Co-Chairs: Jeong-Hoon Park, Ralph Neff, Chalan Aras
    Mandate:	To complete the Interop Work Plan (m4-out-20030) and carry out the work To establish a procedure for Product Certification
    End date	12th General M4IF meeting
    Meetings	Regular phone meetings will be held
    Mail list	[email protected]

13. The tentative date and place for the 12th General M4IF meeting are as follows:

    Date:	2 days, Adjacent to WEMP, June 2003
    Time:	09:00 - 18:00 hours on both days
    Place:	Co-located with WEMP
    Meeting fee:	TBD

14. These resolutions, with sensitive personal data removed, will be published on the public part of M4IF's website.

15. All meeting output, including this version of the resolutions, will be made available on the private part of M4IF's web site.

16. A new password for the website will be distributed among members in good standing.

17. M4IF thanks Paul Ritchie, Jennifer Kling, and the personnel of the Awaji Yumebutai for their great support in organizing the meeting.

Annex A - List of participants

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