[opendtv] Re: US DTV Patent Royalties Range From $24 to $40
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 10:53:57 -0400
At 7:33 PM -0400 6/7/09, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
Not true.
TRUE
The ATSC royalties add up to either $5.00 or $10.00 per unit that I can
tell, the latter being if whatever Funai patents hold up. I cannot make
heads or tails of the others.
EVEN IF you had only dumb monitors, *something* in your TV viewing chain
would be paying all of the non-ATSC royalties regardless.
EXACTLY. Thus my original statement is true.
The reality is that "*something* OTHER THAN the integrated ATSC tuner
in the TV is used by the vast majority (read >85%) of ALL installed
DTV monitors and integrated receivers.
That's whatyou keep missing. Whether it's program guides, copy
protection schemes,
digital baseband interfaces, tru2way, LED back lighting, plasma
burn-through protection, you name it.
No Bert. YOU are the one who is missing the point. I have no problem
paying royalties on the stuff I actually use. But companies are
making hundreds of millions - actually billion$ - off the royalties
on ATSC tuners that ARE NOT used.
Now, here's the bottom line. People need to be consistent in their
indignation in order *not* to appear like political activists. In this
case, getting all out of joint about $5.00 or $10.00 of one-time tax
sounds mighty disingenuous, from those who consistently advocate that
all TV viewing should be done via MVPDs, or via a centrally controlled
"spectrum utility," or pay-per-view, or other such.
You are still wrong.
I have never advocated that ALL TV VIEWING be done through ANY
specific infrastructure. I have consistently argued that the
infrastructure that you rely upon, the infrastructure that uses the
public spectrum, should be optimized to deliver more reliable
service, expanded choice, and a range of new capabilities that would
make it more competitive with the other infrastructures that people
actually use.
I have argued for the marketplace to make most of these decisions,
not politicians and government bureaucrats, or the special interests
who use the force of government to mandate their technology.
The spectrum is a HIGHLY VALUABLE public asset that SHOULD be used to
benefit the public, not to feather the nests of special interests and
to pay for government largess.
That the spectrum is valuable is obvious, given the billions that
some companies are willing to invest to lease it for their services.
It should be noted that these leases are nothing more than indirect
taxation of a public resource, as we pay for the use of the spectrum
via subscriber fees.
We pay for the TV spectrum too. it is now subsidized by nearly 90% of
ALL people who watch TV via retransmission consent payments. And it
is subsidized in the price of everything we buy that is advertised on
TV.
I believe it is time to use the TV spectrum efficiently and properly,
and to use some of the revenues that it generates to subsidize the
construction and operation of a Digital Media infrastructure that
will serve EVERYONE, not just the small number of viewers who still
resist paying monthly or per use fees for their content.
The one-time ATSC tax is chicken feed, completely swamped EVERY SINGLE
MONTH by the fees one would encounter with the schemes you propose.
What I am proposing would bring market forces to bear on the problem.
EVERYONE would pay LESS, as is the reality EVERYWHERE else in the
world.
Regards
Craig
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