Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Future of Video Codec Licensing: Avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons

Media Coding Industry Forum (MC-IF) announces workshop on codec patent licensing:

Future of Video Codec Licensing:
Avoiding the tragedy of the commons

January 7th 2019, Sunnyvale, California
Admission is complimentary, but Registration is Required 

Are you worried about the future of media codec licensing? Would you like to find out more about ideas and initiatives to create an effective patent licensing landscape for media technologies? Are you interested to hear about the business needs for more efficient data compression methods and how such methods can be brought to market?

Join the Media Coding Industry Forum (MC-IF) and its members at an open workshop: "Future of Video Codec Licensing: avoiding the tragedy of the commons" with a reference to the concept that individual actions in a group, while individually rational or even optimal, might result in an outcome that is far from optimal for any member, and generally undesirable for the group. How can such a situation be avoided? The workshop will engage attendees in a frank and open discussion of the needs, desires, and issues, and include speakers from major players in patent pool licensing, implementers, licensors, broadcasting, and delivery, covering the entire video compression ecosystem.

The workshop will follow an open meeting and consist of panel sessions and discussion as follows:

10am-1pm Open meeting, incl. Lunch

1-2pm Industry Needs and Opportunities for the Ecosystem
  • Ben Waggoner (Amazon)
  • Michael Robinson (AT&T)
  • Lynn Comp (Intel)
  • Jonatan Samuelsson (Divideon)
  • Mod: Jan Ozer (Streaming Learning Center) 
2:30-3:30 Roadblocks, Impediments - and Bulldozers
  • Stephan Wenger (Tencent)
  • Tom Vaughn (Beamr)
  • Stefan Lederer (Bitmovin)
  • Jeremy Rosenberg (Harmonic)
  • Mod: Shawn Ambwani (Unified Patents) 
4-5pm View of Licensors
  • Larry Horn (MPEG-LA)
  • Hasan Rashid (HEVC Advance)
  • Greg Weiss (Velos Media)
  • Robert Gray (Nokia)
  • Mod: Brian Love (Santa Clara Univ Law School)
5pm Wrap-up Discussion

5:30-6:30 Reception
The workshop is open to anyone, but we are asking the press not to attend the workshop. It will operate under the Chatham House Rule1. Please note that this is primarily an ecosystem event, not a technology event. Attendance is particularly encouraged from those in the licensee-licensor relationship, and from those building businesses that use licensed media standards.

During the same day, January 7th, there will be an open meeting of MC-IF from 10AM to 1PM, including lunch, where information about the forum will be presented and participants will be able to interact with representatives from MC-IF, to ask questions and provide feedback. The workshop follows lunch (provided), from 1:00PM to 5:30PM PST. The day ends with a reception (starting at around 5:30PM).

Both events are open to everyone and free of charge; anti-trust counsel will be present at both. Seating is limited so please register as soon as possible! Pre-registration is required.

Location: CableLabs, 400 W California Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94086


The Media Coding Industry Forum was formed in 2018 to specifically focus on non-technical aspects of media coding standard deployment with an initial focus on the Versatile Video Coding (VVC) standard that is under development in a joint effort of ISO/IEC and ITU-T.

MC-IF is pleased with its continued rapid membership growth. Apple, Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, Sony, Tencent, and many others have all joined the MC-IF to collectively search for improvements—for all parties—in the media codec licensing ecosystem. To become a part of this important effort and join MC-IF, go to http://www.mc-if.org/membership.

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