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December 15, 2005
Basics for MPEG-4 Licensing for Streaming Content
Many are not aware that if you are creating a business model for streaming content based on the MPEG-4 standard there are some licensing issues you need consider. The good thing about the licensing for MPEG-4 content is it is mainly targeting towards those individuals or organizations that are making money off of streaming MPEG-4 content.
Here are some of the details under the MPEGLA MPEG-4 Visual Patent Portfolio License:
> Get more details about the MPEG-4 Visual Patent Portfolio License
On a Subscription-basis, royalty fees need to be paid if you have more than 100,000 subscribers in a Calendar Year. There are no royalty fees that need to be paid if you have 100,000 or less subscribers in a Calendar Year. The maximum that any entity has to pay is $300,000 for greater than 25,000,000 subscribers.
'In cases where a user's products or services do not reach the minimum threshold amounts above which royalties are payable, the user would still need to conclude the MPEG-4 Visual License with MPEG LA in order to benefit from the coverage the License provides,' says Dane E. Rauschenberg, Licensing Associate for MPEG LA.
On a Title-by-Title basis, royalties paid are the lower of 2% of the price paid to the Licensee or $0.02 per title for video greater than 12 minutes. A good thing is that there is is no royalty for a specific title of 12 minutes or less.
This MPEG-4 licensing information only pertains to Visual content. It does not include audio.
If you would like to find out more information and details about MPEG-4 audio licensing you check out these websites:
Note: Specials Thanks to Dane E. Rauschenberg from MPEG LA for providing an overview of the MPEG-4 Visual Licensing.
Posted by MovingPicture at December 15, 2005 04:14 PM