<snip all>
A couple of things...first you have to practically be a lawyer to get any
useful information from the MPEGLA website. There's not a good FAQ in plain
language. Ugh.
However, what I believe to understand, and ultimately legal advice is going
to be required, is that:
IF I create the content...
DO NOT seek "remuneration" for the content
THEN there are no licensing issues.
ELSE IF I create the content
AND seek "remuneration" (i.e. commercials/advertising in-stream)
THEN I /may/ face licensing issues. Yet this is unclear.
**What has been the experience of member of the list working in commercial
endeavors?**
**Also, when seeking legal advice, how specialized must it be and are there
recommendations or references anyone would like to provide?**
Ultimately, what Apple and organizations like MPEGLA need to do is *spell*
out the basics in *plain* language. More small content providers need this
to get started without the overhead of legal fees.
In closing it also seems that MPEGLA is directed to implementers of the
technology, i.e. entities that create devices that encode and decode MPEG
streams. I noted that the fees are "cheap" and easily absorbed by companies
like Apple and Micros~1 as a cost of competing in the market. Free players
("decoders") distributed as widely as they are cost only 500K (w/o
reporting) in the licensing schedule for the "Enterprise" (increasing to 1M
in 2008). Considering the budgets of some of these enterprises 500K-1M is
cheap when one factors the costs associated with retention and expansion of
market share. It's very likely Apple recoups the cost of such a fee with Pro
line software and is able to offer "no per-stream taxes" when using QTSS.
I hope to that the list will consider that what I learn here is being used
to evaluate "buy v. build" options. I'm a proponent of build in this case
for the simple reason that buying content delivery services from companies
like Real limit content creation and delivery options. I would like to
implement an Apple-hosted (on xserves and Mac OS X with QTSS/QTB) service
for the government entity in question.
Thanks in advance and hope to learn more from those with experience.
Tim
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