From owner-freebsd-ports Thu Dec 9 7:54:36 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Received: from khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu (khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu [18.24.4.193]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A7D4215103 for ; Thu, 9 Dec 1999 07:54:29 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from wollman@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu) Received: (from wollman@localhost) by khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) id KAA54659; Thu, 9 Dec 1999 10:54:28 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from wollman) Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 10:54:28 -0500 (EST) From: Garrett Wollman Message-Id: <199912091554.KAA54659@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu> To: ports@freebsd.org Subject: FYI: [Dean Skandalis: Re: Submit Your Question to MPEGLA] Sender: owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org ------- start of forwarded message (RFC 934 encapsulation) ------- Return-Path: Received: from LCS.MIT.EDU (mintaka.lcs.mit.edu [18.26.0.36]) by khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id KAA54621 for ; Thu, 9 Dec 1999 10:45:44 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from dskandalis%mpegla.com@us.mpegla.com) Received: from us.mpegla.com by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13908; 9 Dec 99 10:45 EST Received: from mpegla.com (capitol.mpegla.com [207.205.77.58]) by us.mpegla.com (Netscape Messaging Server 3.54) with ESMTP id AAA7AE for ; Thu, 9 Dec 1999 08:44:37 -0700 Message-ID: <384FCE47.7D836458@mpegla.com> Organization: MPEG LA, LLC X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 (Macintosh; U; PPC) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <199912052127.QAA2575564@www47.rapidsite.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: "Dean Skandalis" To: wollman@lcs.mit.edu Subject: Re: Submit Your Question to MPEGLA Date: Thu, 09 Dec 1999 10:44:11 -0500 Hello, Garrett. Thank you for your inquiry and for your interest in MPEG LA. Please allow me to give you some background information about the MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License and address the issue you raised regarding Open Source software with MPEG-2 capabilities. By making worldwide MPEG-2 Essential Patent rights available to all users on the same terms at fixed rates under a single license, the MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License is the easiest, most cost-effective way for MPEG-2 users to obtain patents right coverage they need for their MPEG-2 products. MPEG-2 encoders/decoders whether in hardware or software are included among them, and all MPEG-2 products of like functionality are treated the same. As such, they all bear the same royalty. Therefore, the short answer to your question is that proper licensing is required for a software encoder/decoder and royalties will apply. Please allow me to explain further: Royalties are for the use of MPEG-2 technology developed by the patent holders to the MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License. In the spirit of the License, fairness and nondiscriminatory treatment demand that they be applied consistently to assure that equivalent functionality carries equivalent royalties; to do otherwise would give one product an unfair advantage over another. Decisions on how to market and sell products which use the MPEG-2 technology are and should be made by users, and MPEG-2 royalties charged by patent holders should not be a factor. Therefore, royalties are charged and payable on all MPEG-2 products regardless of use, volume, price or whether there is any charge (direct or indirect) at all. Some users may choose to give away products at reduced prices, bundle them with other products or charge nothing at all (for example, in order to induce customers to purchase other products or services). It would be impractical (and undesirable) for MPEG LA to become involved in those decisions or to make these kinds of distinctions among products; plus the value of the MPEG-2 technology is the same in all cases. Therefore, consistent with normal arms length business practice, MPEG LA doesn't get involved with these decisions, and the royalties we charge do not depend on, them. I hope I have answered your question. If you would like additional information or have further questions, please feel free to contact me directly. Best regards, Dean Skandalis Licensing Associate MPEG LA, LLC mpegla.website@www47.rapidsite.net wrote: > Hello, > My name is Garrett Wollman. > My email address is wollman@lcs.mit.edu. > My question is : > Many Open Source software > systems exist with MPEG > encoding and decoding > capability. What is MPEG LA's > position with respect to > these programs, and is > there an end-user licensing program to enable the lawful > use of such software? > > Thank you. ------- end ------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-ports" in the body of the message