[M4IF Discuss] Questions about the hourly usage fee for MPEG4

[Rob Koenen]

Ken and all,
> Under the proposed licensing scheme, there won't be any 
> hourly usage fees
> for decoding MPEG4 content stored on DVD.  

Correct. The use fee is paid when the content is pressed on the disk.
> So if an MPEG4 movie is first
> downloaded to a storage device, and then viewed some time after the
> download, just as a user would a DVD, would there be an 
> hourly usage fee?

Good question. My intuition tells me that the use fee is dues when 
content is being downloaded.
This bring us to the question: if the content is never 
consumed - what then?
This is especially relevant in the context of Broadcast.
However, we only have seen hints at what the broadcast model looks 
like, and it mentions something like 'statistics'. Statistics could 
account for non-viewings ... Let me leave it at that.
The interesting and underlying question in your questions is that 
content moves from place to place and there may be intermediate 
stations before it hits an end users.  
Say A(uthor) -> B(etween) -> C(onsumer)
Questions - I guess to MPEGLA:
* Where does the fee get charged?
* if in B (say, a Bekamai CDN) 
	- will B even know it *is* an MPEG-4 file???
	- Assume for the sake of the argument that a simple download 
	  takes place of a zipped MP4 file from a non-MPEG-4 specific 
	  server. (I know zipping doesn't make much sense, but let's 
	  just assume) Can B even be deemed to be infringing? 
	  (Disclaimer - I Am Not A Lawyer)
* if with A - how will A know how many C's get to view the content?
* What does a practical accounting scheme look like that is imposed
  by the license structure?
Best to all,
Rob