My software will be using ffmpeg to encode to WMV 8 format and I would like to know whether there's any licensing I need to go through or royalties paid to microsoft. I've tried to read through the windows media licensing page but its all very confusing
to me. I hope someone can let me know the simple answer on whether I need any special licensing or royalties to be paid to Microsoft.
You don't need to pay royalties.
Licensing a Windows-based Application That Reads, Writes, and Edits Content in Windows Media Format
If you are an ISV and you want to obtain the tools to create and distribute a Windows-based application that reads, writes, and edits files in the Windows Media Format, such as players or content-creation, editing, and encoding applications, do one of the
following:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/licensing/Licensing_Win_Apps_CustApp.aspx