This announcement from Apple Developer Relations...
Dear QuickTime Developer,
Apple's QuickTime 3 has been very well received by both customers and the
computer industry for the landmark product that it is. We appreciate the
great support so many of you have shown for it. The end user downloads
continue to amaze us with no let-up in sight. A great many customers are
choosing to purchase Apple's QuickTime 3 Pro and many of you have begun to
license QuickTime 3 for distribution with your products.
We have also had requests from many of you for modifications to a few of
the QuickTime Software Distribution Agreement (SDA) terms. We have been
compiling these requests in order to come up with the best solution to meet
both your varied distribution needs and our growing QuickTime business. The
resulting solution will include both modifications to the QuickTime SDA and
to the QuickTime installers to ensure that many developers will not need to
modify their applications in order to comply with the modified agreement
terms.
We value our developer relationships and hope that the modifications that
we have made will meet many of your requests.
Both the modified QuickTime SDA documents and an updated QuickTime 3 set of
installers will be made available before the end of May. Please take a
moment to review the brief summary of key modifications below and then
visit Apple's software licensing web site at
(http://developer.apple.com/mkt/registering/swl/swl.shtml)
to review the complete documents in their entirety once they are posted.
Please Note: The following summary of new license terms is intended to give
you a general understanding of the new terms. Licenses for redistribution
of QuickTime will be governed by the terms contained in the signed
agreements.
QuickTime Software Distribution Agreement (SDA) Modifications in Brief:
1. QuickTime Free Distribution
The modified QuickTime SDA will enable QuickTime 3 Software to be
distributed for free with a software or hardware product simply by using
Apple's new QuickTime 3 installer as part of the licensee's product's
installation procedure or by asking that the user runs the new QuickTime
installer if the licensee's product has no installation procedure. The
QuickTime 3 installer must be invoked regardless of whether the user
already has QuickTime 3 (the installer will manage situations where
QuickTime 3 is already installed).
The new installer will play a graphic ad for QuickTime 3 Pro (requiring no
user interaction) once during installation and place the "Get QuickTime 3
Pro" interactive movie on the user's desktop once during installation.
2. QuickTime "No-Ad" Distribution
The modified QuickTime SDA will continue to offer the choice to distribute
QuickTime 3 without playing the graphic ad for QuickTime 3 Pro or placing
the "Get QuickTime Pro" interactive movie on the desktop for $1 per unit.
Apple will provide a "no-ad" version of the QuickTime 3 installer that does
not play the graphic ad or place the "Get QuickTime Pro" movie on the
desktop for these agreements.
There will also continue to be the same choice to distribute QuickTime 3
Pro for $2 per unit. These royalties will be based on products distributed
but will also allow for credit against returns.
3. QuickTime 2.1.2 Distribution
The modified QuickTime SDA will enable continued QuickTime 2.1.2 for
Windows software distribution. The modified QuickTime SDA will require that
QuickTime 3 also be distributed with QuickTime 2.1.2. The QuickTime 3
installer must be used as part of the licensing product's installation or
ensure that the user runs the new QuickTime 3 installer if the licensing
product has no installation procedure. The new QuickTime 3 installer will
install QuickTime 3 on client operating systems later than Windows 3.1
(e.g. Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4, Windows NT 5, etc.). The
QuickTime 3 installer will not install QuickTime 3 or place the "Get
QuickTime 3 Pro" interactive ad on the desktop of Windows 3.1 systems.
Again, the QuickTime 3 installation will (on systems later than Windows
3.1) play a graphic ad for QuickTime 3 Pro (requiring no user interaction)
once during installation and place the "Get QuickTime 3 Pro" interactive
movie on the user's desktop once during installation.
4. QuickTime SDA Duration
Under the modified QuickTime SDA, licensees will be able to continue to
distribute QuickTime 3 or QuickTime 3 Pro for as long as the licensee is
distributing the software products identified in the agreement or "dot
releases" of those products (e.g. AppleWorks 5.1, 5.2, 5.3). Note:
Agreements for distribution of QuickTime 3 and QuickTime 3 Pro with
hardware products will continue to require annual renewal.
5. QuickTime 3 Web Browser Plug-in
While the behavior of the QuickTime 3 web browser plug-in is not described
in the QuickTime SDA documents, we have responded to your comments and made
some changes there as well.
The QuickTime 3 Web Browser plug-in will be modified so that the "Get
QuickTime 3 Pro" interactive movie is only invoked the first time the
plug-in is invoked after installation. It will also place the "Get
QuickTime 3 Pro" movie file on the end user's desktop the first time the
plug-in is invoked following installation.
We feel confident that these QuickTime Software Distribution Agreement
modifications meet many of the requests that we have received. We will work
with those developers who have executed the previous QuickTime 3 SDA and
wish to modify their agreement to reflect these new terms to migrate to the
modified QuickTime SDA.
We thank you for all your support for QuickTime 3 and the open
communication you have shared with us.
Philip Schiller
VP of Worldwide Product Marketing
Apple Computer
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QuickTime resources
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QuickTime Developer list
(http://lists.apple.com/quicktime-dev.html)
QuickTime Announce list (broadcast only)
(http://lists.apple.com/quicktime-announce.html)