License Agreement Question

kdi001 wrote on 4/3/2007, 6:08 AM

Does the DVD-A License Agreement give the commercial dvd creator complete freedom to create dvds and sell them in mass quantities? I only ask because of a recent thread which was started not long ago regarding the MPEG-2 patent holder license agreement: "Any Use Of This Product Other Than Consumer Personal Use In Any Manner That Complies With The Mpeg-2 Standard For Encoding Video Information For Packaged Media Is Expressly Prohibited Without A License Under Applicable Patents In The Mpeg-2 Patent Portfolio, Which License Is Available From A Mpeg La, L.l.c., 250 Street, Suite 300, Denver, Colorado 80206."

I'm assuming this is legal mumbo-jumbo and doesn't affect the independent filmmaker who might be fortunate enough to sell mass quantities of his/her project. The link is below.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=90201[url][/url]

Comments

ScottW wrote on 4/3/2007, 6:26 AM

I don't think so, however, I think we're still in the clear because the price of the licensing should have already been included in the cost of the blank DVD's that you purchased and that would have been paid for by the manufacturing facility. I just can't imagine MPEG La wanting to administer millions of small accounts.

The only time I would imagine it would be a concern is if you went out and purchased your own replication equipment and started making your own DVD's from scratch.

Disclaimer - I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV or the internet; my opinion should not be construed as anything else but my opinion and its applicability to you or your situation should not be assumed. That being said, I'm not planning on losing any sleep over this.

--Scott

MPM wrote on 4/4/2007, 11:18 AM

As Scott I'm no lawyer by any means, but my understanding is that MainConcept pays a fee to the mpg2 folks, & Sony Media also pays a negotiated fee [to the mpg2 organization &/or MainConcept] - these cover some portion of the expected use, i.e. end user creation of mpg2 video. I don't know if it covers *mass* distribution -- the Sony Media end user license online doesn't mention it -- but like Scott I don't think very many people are losing sleep over it. It's like the licensing for DV... Manufacturers pay for using it, pass the cost on to shooters when they buy a camera, but I'm not aware of anyone worrying about paying further license fees every time they pick up their camera.

That said the DVD folks do expect to get paid. For small quantities I agree with Scott - probably not worth it to worry a whole lot about it. The tax we pay in the US however I don't think covers anything really. When they 1st wanted to bring audio cassette recorders to market, the same folks I believe behind today's mp3 gestapo force, conned Congress into compensating them for some theoretical loss in sales of retail recordings. To my knowledge this has served as precedent and been included in some form with every other type of recordable media since then.

Per1 wrote on 4/4/2007, 2:11 PM

The DVD manufacts. pay the lic. fee - not the customer. It's all in the price anyhow - just like free BMW service... :)

farss wrote on 4/4/2007, 3:03 PM

As far as I know, if your DVD is being Replicated then yes, the replicator should be paying the fee. If you're duplicating a few 1,000 yourself, don't know, guess it just slips under the radar. Certainly blank DVD media doesn't include any payment to the mpeg-2 licence owners that I know of and it'd be nuts if it did. A good percentage of DVD media is used purely for data backup.

Bob.

Chienworks wrote on 4/4/2007, 3:46 PM

That's quite true. I'd say nearly 50% of the DVDs i use are non-DVD-video discs. If the licensing fee was included then i would certainly demand a refund! I'd also demand a refund on every coaster i made.