Lower Royalties for VR
Lower Royalties for VR — In mid-May, Apple announced it was reducing the royalties it charges developers to publish material using QuickTime VR. The company waives royalties for non-commercial use of QuickTime VR, as well as for internal distribution within companies or educational institutions. Developers who wish to distribute QuickTime VR run-time software outside their organizations may do so with no royalty charge for fewer than 25,000 CD-ROM titles or 50,000 enhanced audio CDs. Above those quantities, Apple charges a royalty of $400 per 5,000 CD-ROM titles or $750 per 25,000 enhanced audio CDs. At the same time, the company has reduced the cost of the QuickTime VR Authoring Tools suite from $2,000 to $495 for the PAL and NTSC tools. (A bundle of both tools, plus MPW Pro, is $695.) Anyone who wishes to distribute Apple software must still execute a license agreement. The tools themselves are available from APDA at 800/282-2732. [MHA]