[M4IF Discuss] Article in Salon.com

[Rob Koenen]

Kevin,
Of course. In the end the consumer always pays for all the 
cost of providing a service, including the profit that any
party stands to make. And yes, there are more users of
MPEG-4 than just the end-users (or consumers).
It is important, however, to dispel the myth (and some people really
believe this) that the licensors or there representatives will collect
royalties directly from end-users. This was very much the
gist of the story Stop-Pay-Download. 
It is good to be concerned, but people should be aware of
the real situation and then be concerned on the basis of
that understanding, and not on the basis of myths and FUD.
Thanks for your input,
Rob 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kevin Marks [mailto:kmarks   apple.com]
> Sent: Friday, March 08, 2024 17:53
> To: Rob Koenen
> Cc: Damien Cave (E-mail); M4IF Discussion List (E-mail)
> Subject: Re: [M4IF Discuss] Article in Salon.com
> 
> 
> 
> On Thursday, March 7, 2002, at 02:53 PM, Rob Koenen wrote:
> > "a 2 cents an hour charge that either users or manufacturers
> >  of the software would have to come up with. "
> >   User will _not_ be charged under the proposed scheme.
> 
> Rob, that is sophistry.
> The current scheme charges content vendors when revenue is being 
> generated. This means someone is being charged for it. Either the 
> viewers (directly or indirectly) or the content vendors. 
> Either of these 
> can reasonably be termed 'users' of MPEG4.
>