What is your thought on the following question? If I make a commercial program that uses direct show to play .MP3 (BGplayer in DX SDK) am I still required to license MP3 decoding from Thompson (holder of MP3 Copyright)? Or has this been licensed by MS in DirectX? I am not writing an MP3 Decoder just calling the DirectShow API and directing it to play the MP3. If you know where I can look to find the answer I''d appreciate it. Thanks up front, Aman aman@twcny.rr.com

Thompson, http://www.mp3licensing.com/ , Requires an, IMHO, Outragous license on Encoding and Decoding and the
cost varies depending on the application from (Decoding)
$.75/copy sold - MINIMUM $15,000 a year royalty, on up.

However from what I''ve read on the forums here (search all MP3)
I do not believe I have to pay a royalty because
My software is NOT decoding the MP3, Direct Show is, which
has already been licensed by MS for use on MS OS program Development.

Thanks again for the replys,

Aman
heresaman@yahoo.com

Last I checked for game development purposes an license for mp3 is a one time flat fee, if you sell more than like 5,000 units... or something like that.

Gamedev''s AI Auto-Reply bot.

Thomson has bought out the Fraunhofer IIS-A MP3 patents

When Fraunhofer IIS-A owned the patents there were NO
royalties on decoding or decoding software HOWEVER
since Thomson bought the patents they CHARGE$$$$ for ANYTHING

Examples from their site (http://www.mp3licensing.com)
Software:
Decoder: US $0.75 per unit; or US $50,000.00 - US $100,000.00 one-time paid-up
Encoder: US $2.50 - US $5.00 per unit (No one time fee option)
Note on Software: US $15,000.00 per calendar year, annual minimum royalties. Payable upon signature and each following year in January and are fully creditable against annual revenues.

Games: US $2,500.00 per title (No license fees are due if > 5K copies of a game title are distributed)

Music Distribution/Broadcasting/Streaming:2.0% of related revenue

As a side note on my orignal question I found this in their FAQ

I have my own/third party mp3 software. Do I need a license?

Yes. Use of our patents is not related to a specific implementation of encoders and decoders,
which means that a license under our patents is needed.

So once again do I need a license if my program calls MS Direct Show to play MP3 file?

Thanks for all the response''s,
Aman

Here are a few snippets from Microsoft's DirectXDev mailing list.

This came from a Microsoft employee:
------------------------------
If you are using DirectShow and the MP3 decompressor in DirectShow then there are no additional license fees required. If you wish to put an MP3 compressor in your package to allow users to do their own compression, you'll need to license one, since DirectShow doesn't provide one, and that will probably have licensing restrictions. But for playback on the client, DirectShow is all you need.

Brian Marshall
Program Manager
DirectShow Core
Microsoft
-------------------------------

in another thread, this is posted by someone who is NOT a Microsoft employee:
-------------------------------
The problem is that there is a per-track (whatever that means)
charge of something like $0.05 per encoded MP3 track that
you ship on a CD. So, while the player has already been
licensed by Microsoft for your playback pleasure, the cost
of encoding has not been paid. All that free stuff on
the web is free because of a special exception to the
license from Fraunhofer that allows non-commercial sharing
of MP3 files for free.
-------------------------------

Not sure what this second post means. It almost seems to imply that if you have PURCHASED a COMMERCIAL MP3 encoder, you dont have to pay the license fee for encoding (since that fee was paid by the author of the encoding software), and that the $0.05/track fee is only if you used a freeware encoding software. And again, the license for the decoding was paid by Microsoft.

So, I guess this raises as many questions as it answers.


P.S. After rereading your original post, it isnt clear whether or not you intend to ship MP3 files with your app. If no, then I think you are in the clear. If you are shipping files, then Im not positive what exactly (if anything) you would have to pay.

Edited by - LordKronos on January 7, 2002 10:13:04 AM

LordKronos

Thank you for your post I have been trying to get a hold of
Microsoft Dev and licensing to no avail (keeps refering me to newsgroups).

I do not intend on sending any songs. Only having the ability
for my customers to play a song. MP3 is just one of the formats,
I would like to include.

Again thank you that was exactly what I was looking for.

Aman

LordKronos

How do you send questions to MS Dev just for future refrence?
I tried every which way on there site (MSDN, C++ Dev, Direct Show, Licensing, etc) and could not come up with any email addresses, only got tossed around websites and newsgroups!!

Thanks again,

Aman

DirectXDev (covers all aspects of DirectX):
http://discuss.microsoft.com/archives/directxdev.html
this one is pretty much open for anyone to look at and browse.

DirectXAV (focuses on AV aspects, like DirectMusic, DirectShow, etc):
http://discuss.microsoft.com/archives/directxav.html
This one, for some reason, requires you to sign up to the list before you can even browse the archives.

I only ask anyone who goes there to be polite and on topic. These lists are very useful because they are kept clear and to the point. You almost never see someone asking about something not DirectX related (ex: how do I program an Octree?), you never see "what is beter, directX or OpenGL?", and you NEVER see flame wars (though occasionally...very rarely...you see 2 people with exact opposite opinions on a topic get a little hot in their debates). The best thing about the forums is that they have many professional developers there, some employees from hardware companies (mostly Nvidia), and developers from the Microsoft DirectX teams (which means sometimes you can get your answer straight from the horses mouth).

Edited by - LordKronos on January 8, 2002 8:22:59 AM