Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

M$ VC1 fiasco

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • M$ VC1 fiasco

    Link....

    Microsoft mugged over VC-1 codec patent terms

    Comment

    We meet people on the various IPTV, mobile TV and web video circuits who always comment that VC-1, after a flying start, has fallen back and that pretty much these days the codec of choice is either VP6 from On2 Technologies for web video and H.264 for everything else, with no VC-1 in sight.

    Just over three weeks ago the MPGE LA issued a final license for the Microsoft-inaugurated VC-1 codec, after forming a group to assess essential patents and to discuss terms for it, back in March 2004, the process taking precisely three years.

    The license may in fact only be a license by which Microsoft can pay everyone else fees. There are no less than 16 separate companies that are deemed to have patents that are essential for VC-1 to work, the latest addition to the 15 company list that was first issued last August, being Korean number three handset maker, Pantech Curitel.
    >
    And it goes downhill for M$ from there.
    Terms for building a device with the technology in splits into two formats, if it’s for a specific function in a CE device it costs nothing for the first 100,000 licenses; 20 cents each for up to 5 million licenses; 10 cents for all licenses above 5 million and there is a royalty cap of $5m a year. But if the royalty is for a PC operating system, which can of course be used for multiple applications, the cap is $8m.

    If Microsoft is forced to pay back 10 years of back payment for royalties (as was suggested in the August 2006 draft license) then it would have an up front payment of something like $80m, divvied up between all 16 companies, and a continual $8m a year – for something that it was claiming it invented itself.
    Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 15 April 2007, 19:16.
    Dr. Mordrid
    ----------------------------
    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

  • #2
    Sounds like a fiasco.

    Unbelievable.

    Jerry Jones
    I found a great domain name for sale on Dan.com. Check it out!

    Comment

    Working...
    X