Try here for a little more info, it can get pretty complicated to explain.
http://www.licensing.philips.com/licensees/

If you're just a small buisness that puts out 100 discs a month you should be safe to use whatever media you want. If your a big duplicator putting out thousands of discs a month you would be smart to use only licenced media. I know a little while back Phillips was hitting a LOT of companies with big lawsuits for not using licenced media.

Thanks for the info. It sure is another complicated mess, though.

I think you mentioned Verbatim was an ok vendor. I tried to use the Philips search tool to verify this. No hits on Verbatim. Looking at the packaging I see Verbatim is part of Mitsubishi Chemical. No hits on that either. I did see listings for Mishumi (? - from memory) Chemical.

And then there are a zillion levels of patents (CD DVD CD-R DVD-R DVD-RW etc. etc.) that are listed separately per vendors in the database.

I hope that as a "small fish" I'll never have to worry about this for simply writing to some media. With this quick look I can't see exactly how to find my way through this maze if I wanted to.

I know, their database isn't that helpful. Basically if you're paying around $2 per disc there is a good chance that they are licenced (or you're getting ripped off). If you're paying under $1.50 a disc they are most likely not licenced. This isn't always true, but it's a good starting point. Sometimes companies are owned by bigger companies, and those companies are owned by companies that nobody has heard of before so it's hard to know exactly what to look for. Verbatim, Maxell, Taiyo Yuden are all good quality, licenced disc manufacturers.

If you want some really good information about DVD and the Industry, you should subscribe to the official "DVD List" there are tons of industry professionals as well as manufacturers there that can give you tons of information, a lot more than I can

http://www.tully.com/dvdlist/

I have been a member of the list for a couple years now and it has been a very valuable group of people for basically ANY question you could ever come up with regarding DVD. Much like these boards are for the Vegas community. They also have a searchable database for ALL the archives and most likely any question you have has already been asked, and there is an answer to it in the archives.

>If you want some really good information about DVD and the Industry, you should subscribe to the official "DVD List"

Thanks. done.

I find this a bit hard to swallow, though I admit I haven't been looking at whatever patent fights there are behind DVD recordable technology. But common sense tells me that, since Ritek has been selling premium-quality DVD-R blanks for years (and has probably churned out hundreds of millions by now) AND that Ritek G04 blanks cost about $.80 in modest quantities, then assuming that they were not "licensed" that would make them an incredibly fat target for the licensing attorneys. But I don't see that litigation happening.

I recall a few years ago hearing that the CD-R technology rights cost about $.05 a disk. I suspect that licensing for DVD-R would be comparable.

I have to agree with Richard. This is all a bit hard to buy into. I can't disprove it, but the provided site, on the other hand, proves nothing, either. It makes no sense for Phillips to go after users of the media if the media producer is the one in any form of violation.

A company that is as high-profile and producing and selling as much media as Ritek is would be in some seriously deep hot water if they lacked the proper licensing. As for me, I see absolutely no reason whatsoever to change brands. Ritek makes excellent media at a resonable price. Until something more concrete is provided, I'll stay where I am.

J--

It's not buying the unlicenced discs that is the problem, it's when you sell them after burning something on them that is the problem. If you use them for your own personal use then it doesn't matter, which is why Phillips can't go after anyone who buys them. You can just say I am using them for data backup or something. But as soon as you burn something on the discs and then try to sell them. That is where they can get you.

Why the end user? We are not the ones in violation of anything. It makes no sense!

(edit)

"Ritek Obtain Philips 4x DVD+RW Certification
Ritek recently passed the certification for 4x DVD+RW discs by Philips, the first of Taiwan's optical disc makers, according to company CEO Gordon Yeh. Only a few companies such as Philips, Mitsubishi and Ricoh have 4x DVD+RW technology, Yeh emphasized during an interview at the CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany. The certification will help Ritek compete for OEM orders..."

See:


J--

I don't make the laws, I just obey them :)

You're the only one saying a law is being broken, but you haven't shown any law, past or present.

Besides, you obviously didn't read my last post. It's a moot point, now. Ritek is legal.

J--

Ritek isn't licenced, it just passted a few tests. I will try to get some more infor from the DVD list and post back here if I do.

"Licensed" for what? It has to be "licensed" to be used?

J--

I decided to go straight to the source--Philips. I called the North American corporate office. I spoke with three different people (still waiting to hear back from Brian Wieghaus) in their legal department, not the least of which was Deputy Patent Council, Michael Marion. None of the them seemed to know anything about what I was asking regarding Ritek and licensing. Mike said he didn't think I had anything to worry about. One of them hadn't even heard of Ritek! (scary)

That being the case, I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep over this.

If I ever receive a cease and disist letter from Philips telling me to stop using Ritek media for my customers, then--and only then--will I stop using Ritek, or when Philips shuts them down for licensing violations, which ever comes first.

J--

In the cases I have seen there were no cease and disist letters, basically a huge fine that basically bankrupted a lot of small duplicators. I am still working on getting some more in depth information from the DVD List on this subject since I am no expert and it is still kind of confusing to me as well. I will post any info I get to help clear up the matter.

I searched the DVD List archives and came up with this message from a post I made a while back, I know it doesn't clarify a lot but might be useful to someone. I am still trying to find out exactly why comapanies like Ritek and Princo are able to sell blank DVD-R's that aren't licenced without being sued.

_______________________________________________

Subject: Re: [DVDList] Licenced DVD-R's


1. Is this still an issue?

Yes.

2. If it is still an issue, can a DVD Duplication buisness use

I guess that if you really wanted to try to use un-licensed product, you could try contacting Philips (and the other IP owners) and negotiate your own direct license. I do not think you would enjoy this approach, nor would it be likely in the end to save you any money.
Philips is unambiguous on their position relative to IP issues. See, just for example: http://www.licensing.philips.com/licensees/supp/

Were trying to cut some costs here and this is a BIG part!

Philips, Sony, Pioneer, Discovision, and a bunch of other companies who invested lots of R&D money to make DVD possible now spend lots of money on lawyers to see that skipping royalty payments is not a viable cost reduction strategy in optical media.

You may expect this approach to remain in place for many years.

geoff...