FFmpeg vs. MPEG-LA royalties [LWN.net]

FFmpeg vs. MPEG-LA royalties

Posted Jan 26, 2010 17:09 UTC (Tue) by __alex (subscriber, #38036)
In reply to: FFmpeg vs. MPEG-LA royalties by DonDiego
Parent article: Blizzard: HTML5 video and H.264 - what history tells us and why we're standing with the web

It's not nearly as simply as just dropping ffmpeg in instead of Xiph though. As
you said, they'd have to pay for the license themselves for one. Outsourcing
decoding to system APIs get's around that.

Also I'm not sure they could pay MPEG-LA and still maintain the re-
distribution rights that the MPL gives you. You would need to pay the MPEG-
LA to distribute any modified version of the Gecko engine.

(Log in to post comments)

FFmpeg vs. MPEG-LA royalties

Posted Jan 26, 2010 17:33 UTC (Tue) by DonDiego (subscriber, #24141) [Link]

> It's not nearly as simply as just dropping ffmpeg in instead of Xiph
> though. As you said, they'd have to pay for the license themselves for
> one. Outsourcing decoding to system APIs get's around that.

False. There is no need for Mozilla to distribute FFmpeg libraries with H.264 decoding capabilities themselves.

> Also I'm not sure they could pay MPEG-LA and still maintain the
> redistribution rights that the MPL gives you. You would need to pay
> the MPEG-LA to distribute any modified version of the Gecko engine.

This is nonsense FUD. Please back up your claims or refrain from making them.

FFmpeg vs. MPEG-LA royalties

Posted Jan 26, 2010 17:45 UTC (Tue) by __alex (subscriber, #38036) [Link]

So they ship with support for ffmpeg but without compiling H.264 into it? It
would make it easier for individuals to sneak around the patent restrictions
but that's exactly the sort of thing Mozilla don't want to enable. Yes they
could do this, and it doesn't seem unreasonable for them to do it. It doesn't
result in them shipping an H.264 enabled product though.

Well I can hardly predict the outcome of any potential legal action against
Mozilla or predict their lawyers own views. However it seems clear that
section 3.6 of the MPL provides you with redistribution rights of modified and
unmodified executables.

If Mozilla is offering me redistribution rights to an H.264 decoder as part of a
derivative of a Covered Work then presumably they would need to pursue a
non-standard license with the MPEG-LA. The standard license and fee
structure does not cover redistribution.

FFmpeg vs. MPEG-LA royalties

Posted Jan 26, 2010 18:44 UTC (Tue) by DonDiego (subscriber, #24141) [Link]

Mozilla could either ship an FFmpeg version adapted to their fears or none at all, whatever they wish.

Mozilla is not giving you redistribution rights to FFmpeg. They cannot because they are not the authors. The FFmpeg project does it. No contract with the MPEG-LA is required to do this, much less some sort of non-standard one.