[MPlayer-DOCS] manpage and HTML docs - FFmpeg MPEG-4 vs. DivX

[Jakub Misak]

On Tuesday 23 of November 2004 12:00, Diego Biurrun wrote:

> Could you provide an URL with that statement?

Well, you can find such statements in the forums on divx.com (use 
"Search"), where the DivX representatives like Joe Bezdek repeatedly 
said and complained about this - that DivX is not a geneneric term for 
MPEG-4, and that it makes their company look bad when someone says "I 
donwloaded DivX video and the playback is poor", when it actually turns 
out the "DivX" video was encoded with 3ivx and decoded with FFmpeg.

I'm not a lawyer and I don't say there's some *legal obligation* for you 
to respect their wishes. And I'm not here to defend DXN, I have nothing 
to do with them. But even if for example this particular document 
doesn't apply to you, I think it's pretty clear what they really mean by 
it and what they want:

http://www.divxnetworks.com/about/trademark.php

Some relevant quotes:

"Do not use the DivX trademark in the names of your products or services. 
The DivX trademark may not be used in your product or service names. For 
example, you may not call your product the 'DivX Player.'"

"DivX® is not a generic name for a type of video technology. It is a 
trademark identifying a brand of video technology produced by 
DivXNetworks. The trademark must not be used in a way that implies a 
generic nature. Pairing the DivX trademark with generic terms like 
"MPEG-4" suggests that DivX itself is generic."

"NOT 'DivX/MPEG-4 files'"

Jakub