Codec Licenses

When I posted my comments on Linux, I was a bit concerned because I was admitting to using proprietary codecs to watch videos while running linux. I am hyper sensitive to following the law even in small matters such as this. I sent some time trying to search for an answer and/or solution. This eventually led me to the MPEG Licensing Authority (www.mpegla.com or www.mpegla.org). Not finding the answers I wanted I sent them an e-mail asking them what I needed to do to make sure I was not violating the law. Their response was quick and easily understood:

For your background, MPEG LA’s business is to offer Patent Portfolio Licenses as a convenient way to obtain coverage under patents from multiple patent owners in a single license as an alternative to negotiating licenses directly with each of them. For example, our MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License provides coverage under more than 800 patents from 24 patent owners.

As a general matter, our Licenses provide coverage for the end product, and the party that offers the end product to the end user is responsible for paying the royalty. Therefore, in the normal course, the provider of the codec you are using to view video would be responsible for paying the royalty.

Although our Licenses do not directly provide coverage for an end user and anyone in the product chain may be held responsible for an unlicensed product, a royalty paid for an end product by the end product supplier would render the product licensed in the hands of the end user. Therefore, an end user such as you would not normally pay a royalty to MPEG LA for using a decoder to view video.

With that said, we do encourage all users to assure that they choose products from licensed suppliers and for that purpose we maintain lists of Licensees to each of our Licenses on our website. For example, the list of Licensees to our MPEG-2 License may be found here: http://www.mpegla.com/m2/m2-licensees.cfm.

It appears that their opinion on how to stay legal is to purchase software that does business with them and pays the license fee to them. I'm using Totem and Mplayer and I did not see them listed on the MPEG LA website list of licensed players probably because they are distributed free.

I'm going to continue using linex and the codecs, but I would feel more comfortable if I could pay someone $5 for the codecs and have a license to use them, but again, I am hyper sensitive about staying on the legit side of the law.