You can't just dismiss it and hope that it is. The MPEG LA has been successful with their other patent pools. They've got a good chance of being successful with this one as well.
That's what happened to VC-1. Microsoft tried to release VC-1 on royalty-free terms but the MPEG LA formed a patent pool and then it was no longer royalty-free.
Probably not. The better way is to do a review and have ready rebuttals of fake patent claims. I didn't exactly look into how it was done for DASH, but its big users like YouTube and Netflix should have done it.
> The MPEG LA has been successful with their other patent pools.
And completely unsuccessful with many others. There was the same type of list put out by MPEG-LA trolls for VPx, and I remember there was research published that debunked it all. So there is zero trust in anything that MPEG-LA say, but surely having concrete defense is a good thing.
> There was the same type of list put out by MPEG-LA trolls for VPx
No. They didn't succeed in forming a patent pool for VP8 or VP9. It was one of their "pools in formation" but was never established. The DASH patent pool is beyond that stage.
Which doesn't make it any more valid. But I agree that big players like Google and others should spend resources on preventive defense and debunk all that in advance.
And if they'll fail, there should be some concerted effort to make a patent unencumbered alternative.
MPEG LA has been succesful similarly to why Netflix and the iTunes Store were succesful: make it easy and affordable to comply. On the other hand suing costumers who torrent movies was not succesful at all.
That's what happened to VC-1. Microsoft tried to release VC-1 on royalty-free terms but the MPEG LA formed a patent pool and then it was no longer royalty-free.