At the time of writing, 4K has still not returned in the Netherlands, although it has reappeared in some other countries. Meanwhile, the battle behind the scenes continues…
Disney+ was recently forced to stop streaming 4K content in several countries. The reason was US-based InterDigital, a company that is increasingly behaving like a patent troll. The problem is that it conducts ‘research’ into numerous technologies and subsequently patents the underlying methodology. In other words, we’re not necessarily talking about fully developed products or codecs, but rather descriptions of potentially applicable techniques.
That can be problematic, because virtually every piece of modern software, codec and so on will use something that at least ‘sounds like’ one of those techniques. And that is precisely where InterDigital makes its money. Many companies simply decide it is easier to pay up and get rid of the hassle. Disney+, however, has chosen not to do so.
InterDigital
Disney is paying a high price for its—perhaps not entirely unjustified—refusal to pay InterDigital. It resulted in the disabling of not only 4K content, but HDR as well. Consequently, the most expensive subscription tier has effectively become equivalent to its HD counterpart. InterDigital itself has also pointed this out, accusing Disney of misleading its customers.
Disney has since switched to the VP9 codec in several countries. However, InterDigital claims that some of its patents apply there as well, without going into detail about exactly which technologies are involved. There is a good chance, though, that at least some of these patents are sufficiently broad to allow plenty of room for interpretation.
Another case will soon be heard by the European Unified Patent Court, whose rulings apply across part of the EU. Disney previously lost a case in that same court, resulting in 4K disappearing from Disney+ in the Netherlands, among other countries. Therefore, there is a considerable chance that something similar could happen again, this time based on claims surrounding VP9.
It is unfortunate that there are still companies—let’s call them vultures—that use creative business practices to make serious money from technologies that are very widely used. And all this without it necessarily being clear what such a company has actually contributed to those technologies itself.
InterDigital makes matters even less straightforward than your average patent troll, because the company says it employs a ‘think tank’ of scientists. However, if those researchers merely patent theoretical and broadly worded descriptions of technologies, there is arguably something questionable going on here as well, certainly from a European perspective.