As the Apple Turns: Scene 3565: 3 To 5 With Good Behavior (2/13/02)

3 To 5 With Good Behavior (2/13/02)

Okay, so we all know that QuickTime 6 is (allegedly) ready to go, but its release has been delayed due to a dust-up between Apple and MPEG LA over terms in the licensing of MPEG-4 technology; deciding that he will ship no wine before its time and no codec before it's royalty-free for content providers, Phreedom Phighter Phil Schiller has drawn a line in the sand and dared MPEG LA to step across it. It's a bold gambit; "change your licensing structure, or the single biggest boost your technology could get will remain unshipped." Why, our hearts go all a-flutter at the thought of the sheer chutzpah at work, here.

The question now, though, is, how long are we going to have to wait before we can get our mitts on QuickTime 6? Well, brace yourselves, folks, because a CNET article about the whole stinking mess states that MPEG LA "hopes to finalize its licensing model in the next 3 to 5 months." Applying standard technology release date logic to that estimate, we wouldn't be at all surprised if the license is hammered down in, oh, let's say nine months, with QuickTime 6 actually becoming available a few weeks later. That's a long time to wait for a product that we've just seen demonstrated in what truly appears to be a fully functional state. (Then again, we're Mac users; after enduring the years leading up to Mac OS X's release, surely we can handle anything-- as evidenced by the fact that few, if any, Mac users have actually keeled over and died waiting for a Carbonized Photoshop to ship.)

For what it's worth, MPEG LA doesn't seem particularly receptive to Apple's criticisms, as it remains "optimistic that the use fee can work"-- though the organization claims to be "very thankful for the feedback that [it's] getting from Apple and the marketplace." Given that "the marketplace's" reaction to the proposed usage fee-- remember, it's not just the fact that it's a two-cents-per-stream-per-hour royalty with no usage cap, it's also the fact that people are somehow going to have to keep track of all this stuff-- has been, if anything, harsher than Apple's, we get the distinct sense that MPEG LA fosters a masochistic streak a mile wide. After all, if it's seriously "thankful" for the feedback it's gotten so far, it'd probably be downright delirious with joy at, say, having its offices torched to the ground by a rampaging mob of disgruntled content providers. (Note that we are NOT suggesting a course of action, here.)

So buckle down, people, and make your peace with QuickTime 5, because it's probably going to be your media architecture of choice for a good while longer. In the meantime, all we can do is wait. Well, that and email MPEG LA with thoughtful and cogent arguments as to why a per-minute, per-stream usage fee will likely prove to be a logistical nightmare that will throttle the standard before it even gets off the ground...

SceneLink (3565)

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Mash-ups and original music by AtAT's former Intern and Goddess-in-Training

The above scene was taken from the 2/13/02 episode:

February 13, 2002: We all knew that QuickTime 6 is delayed for licensing reasons; now we have a general sense of how long that delay might be. Meanwhile, additional rumors about those Pixar iMac "ads" come to light, and Steve Ballmer is complaining that the proposed remedies in the ongoing "Redmond Justice" case might prove to be slightly inconvenient...

Other scenes from that episode:

3566: You Know What... Forget It (2/13/02) In the selfless interest of clearing up some of the mystery swirling around the new Pixarian iMac spots-- namely, the question of whether they're just "short films" or actually television commercials-- the AtAT staff is happy to report that we have since spent many grueling hours channel-surfing with a throughput and a finesse that would easily win Olympic gold (if those boneheads in charge would just make it a frickin' sanctioned event, already)...
3567: "But What's In It For Us?" (2/13/02) We'll make this a quickie, since it's clearly not Mac-related in any direct manner, but you know we're suckers for "Redmond Justice," so we couldn't let this one slip by: as quoted in a Chicago Tribune article pointed out by faithful viewer Mike V., Steve Ballmer has now officially gone on the record as saying that he's "very sad" that the nine states who have refused to roll over are asking for such harsh restrictions on Microsoft's behavior...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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