2014年1月17日
By 1月时特约编辑
专题文章

MPEG LA宣布提议的HEVC许可条款

昨天, MPEG LA 宣布建议的HEVC许可条款. We parsed the press release, 和 spoke with MPEG LA, 和 here’s what we know, 和 what we don’t know.

这些条款对内容发布者更有利. 具体地说, there are no content-related royalties; if H.264 video is sold via pay-per-view or subscription in sufficient quantities, royalties will apply. With HEVC, there will never be any content-related royalties.

直觉上，这很有意义. Content publishers often carry a lot of weight in st和ards decisions like the choice between VP9 和 HEVC; for example, 时代华纳的决定 to back Blu-ray is widely considered the death knell to HD DVD.

我问了MPEG LA副总裁Bill Geary, 是谁帮助HEVC小组正式成立的, about the decision to not charge content-related royalties. He explained that this decision related to how content is produced 和 published today, 尤其是与过去相比. 具体地说, when encoded video was distributed on disk or via cable, 跟踪创建和消费很简单. However, the plethora of distribution mediums available today made this much more complicated. The HEVC IP owners wanted to make the terms as simple as possible in a “modern streamlined pool licensing approach.”

在HEVC的流媒体西部会议上，我大胆地预言 that the HEVC IP owners would attempt to charge royalties on HEVC-encoded content. Geary was there 和 strongly opined that he felt this wouldn’t be the case.

The terms are more expensive for encoder/decoder vendors. 两个小时.264 和 HEVC excepted the first 100,000 units, 和 both charge $0.第一批10万件后每件20美元. 然而，对于H.264，版税降到0美元.500万份后为10美元，上限为6美元.500万到2015年. The HEVC royalty never drops, 和 is capped at $25 million.

虽然2500万美元是个大数目, the most significant computer-related companies that likely reached the $6.5 H.264位是Adobe，苹果，谷歌和微软. While it’s highly unlikely that Apple won’t license HEVC, 毕竟, they’re the first company listed in the MPEG LA press release, 看谷歌怎么做会很有趣.

2011年1月，谷歌做出了承诺删除H.Chrome版264 和从未坚持过，这似乎是对H.264占主导地位. 如果谷歌为Chrome授权HEVC, it will be viewed as a similar recognition that HEVC will also be the dominant st和ard. 继续关注吧.

The terms 和 participants are still a work in progress. The press release included a list of 21 HEVC IP owners, 包括苹果, 思科, 弗劳恩霍夫, NEC, NTT DOCOMO, 汤姆森许可, 和Vidyo. It stated that the terms were currently supported by 25 patent holders, 其中四家拒绝透露身份.

One of the biggest concerns about HEVC was that essential patent holders would opt out of the patent pool, forcing HEVC users to enter into multiple licensing agreements with multiple companies. I asked Geary about notable companies that weren’t listed, including AT&微软、诺基亚和摩托罗拉. 他拒绝就谁加入、谁退出发表评论, but pointed to the language in the press release that states,

As work continues on evaluating patents for essentiality 和 concluding terms in final agreements, the license is currently supported by 25 prospective HEVC essential patent holders including the following (companies listed). Additional patent holders who are participating in the facilitation process also may be included, 也欢迎其他人加入.

MPEG LA posted the release to provide market guidance on the terms accepted by the 25 essential patent holders. But the press release clearly states that the terms are not final, though MPEG LA expects to issue the HEVC Patent Portfolio License “in early 2014.” For this reason, it’s too early to speculate about who will join 和 who won’t.

虽然还没到最后, the proposed terms answer a lot of critical questions, particularly for content owners who were concerned about distributing HEVC-encoded files because of the potential for a royalty. Though encoder/decoder vendors probably won’t like the increased cap, at least they have a feel for how the royalty picture will play out.