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To: TimF who wrote (603)	11/19/2002 6:14:09 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 7936

DVD Royalties Could Raise Prices Four Percent Of The Selling Price Will Feed The DVD Six The DVD6C licensing agency representing the six DVD licensees announced its royalty rates Monday night, which may result in a small price hike for DVD products beginning Jan. 1. While end users won't have to directly pay the licensing group for their patents, the intellectual property fees will still be passed along to consumers. The end result? Expect to pay at least 4 percent more for DVD products, with the money going to the pockets of the members of the DVD6C: AOL Time Warner Inc., Hitachi, Ltd., IBM Corporation, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Toshiba Corporation and Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC). The rates will have a sizeable effect on cheaper products, such as the rapidly falling prices of DVD-ROM products. There--together with read-only products like DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, or DVD-Multi players-- the DVD6C requires manufacturers to pay either 4 percent of the net selling price or $4, whichever is more. DVD decoder makers must may 4 percent or $1, whichever is greater. Makers of recordable or rewritable DVD products must pay 4 percent or $6, whichever is greater. Disc makers aren't excluded. The DVD6C is asking for either 6.5 or 7.5 cents per disc, depending on the format, and a hybrid royalty rate of either a per-case or per-disc fee for rewritable discs, again roughly 4 percent of the cost. Manufacturers are free to negotiate separate royalty rates with individual companies, the DVD6C said. extremetech.com