Can we deliver HEIF images through a CDN?

Question

I'd like to deliver HEIF images through a CDN such as Amazon CloudFront after release iOS11.

But we can't use Nokia's HEIF implementation for commercial purposes because of this license. So I'm looking for an another method to encode HEIF images.

Accordig to Introducing HEIF and HEVC, HEIF images can only be created by iOS devices that have A10 Fusion chip.

we currently only have HEIF encode support and hardware on iOS with minimum configuration being the A10 Fusion chip, an example, of which, is the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus.

Can we deliver HEIF images that are created by iPhone7 etc through a CDN? Is this a patent infringement?

Answer 1

Apple is only talking about hardware-level encoding support. HEIF is a format developed by MPEG and isn't Apple-controlled. Usability and support are still limited, but AFAIK there aren't any technical or legal reasons why you cant use it anywhere (if supported):

More information and links to C++ and JS libraries here: https://nokiatech.github.io/heif/

Answer 2

The licensing issue you're concerned about is only for Nokia's reference implementation. My guess is that Apple is using their own implementation. Regardless, it's not something you need to be concerned about.

If for some reason you are looking to create HEIF images yourself, there's at least one open-source implementation currently available for commercial use. Specifically, GPAC. Though its license (LGPL) does have its own set of potential drawbacks for commercial projects.