MPEG4 letter to licensing

[Koelling]

As any of you who watched the Quicktime live webcast know, licensing for MPEG4 is in debate right now. It is our duty to send an email to licensing@mpegla.com and tell them that it should be free. Here is my letter, make yours personal and polite.

Dear licensing committee,

I just finished watching the Quicktime keynote and I want to express my feelings toward licensing. Some things you can charge money for, like water and electricity, because they are necessary to survival. O2 bars have not taken off like the use of utilities because people can get it for free. MPEG4 is just another flavor of air. Nobody needs to upgrade but should to further the development of the media society.

As for me, I am a college student. Paying a utility fee to watch Honda commercials is not at all what I want to spend money on. I am a film and CS major hoping to get into rendered movie shorts like Pixar produces. Hollywood is very exclusive and I see the internet as the best way to get my movies out to the populous. That will never happen on MPEG4 if you force people to pay for it. Standards need to be free so people will use them. Please don't kill this new technology before it takes off.

Sincerely,
Troy Koelling