DVD-Audio 'compatibility' (1 Viewer)

[Robert Woods]

Wouldn't it be that the decoding of a DVD format is illegal regardless of the appearance of a DVD logo on the equipmwnr - and Dolby/DTS etc. - but of course the DVD logo makes the illegallity blindly more than OBVIOUS if licensing fees have not been paid - ! - ?

 

[Jason Kent]

I was under the impresssion that decoding DVD, DVD 5.1, DD, DTS, etc. were all proprietary processes - and to have 'permission' to do that was a payment of a license fee - and the exhibit you have paid the license fee is the right to use a particular logo.
Decoding and not paying license fees would seem to be a priori illegal. Using the logo (seemingly to camouflage the non-payment) and STILL not paying would just seem to compound matters and make the 'violator' in even more trouble
Is there a lawyer in the house?

 

[Robert Woods]

Sorry - it seems I wasn't very clear.
I would assume that any commercial enterprise using 'proprietary' formats - such as DVD, DD, DTS, etc. would HAVE to pay the owners of that technology - or come to some kind of agreement with them for using that technology.
I don't believe they can just sell stuff that feeds off that technology - whether they put a logo on or not. Of course, if they put on a logo for those technologies and STILL don't pay anything - or make any agreement - then they surely are in 'big trouble.' Or?
As asked for - is there a lawyer in the house?

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Robert, I'm not a lawyer, but I don't have to be one to know that you and Jason are correct. You can't make an MPEG-2 decoder without paying royalties to either the MPEG Licensing Authority (MPEG-LA) or to each and every one of the companies that hold intellectual property in the MPEG-2 standard. MPEG-LA represents 19 companies holding 400 patents covered by MPEG-2. MPEG-LA's royalty on MPEG-2 encoders and decoders was recently lowered to $2.50. MPEG-LA also collects a royalty of 3.5 cents for each mass produced DVD.

Likewise, Dolby Digital decoding has to be licensed from Dolby, DTS decoding has to be licensed from DTS, MP3 decoding licensed from Fraunhofer or whoever, MLP licensed from Dolby on behalf of Meridian. There's probably even royalties to Sony and Philips for CD playback. And there's probably royalties for the physical DVD transport, which I think go to Toshiba and Sony.

Want to hear something funny? For MPEG-4, MPEG-LA wants to collect a royalty on every stream of MPEG-4 video. The silence is deafening. If MPEG-LA doesn't come up with Plan B, MPEG-4 doesn't have much of a future.