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Browser Vendors Force W3C To Scrap HTML 5 Codecs
snydeq writes "Major browser vendors have been unable to agree on an encoding format they will support in their products, forcing the W3C to drop audio and video codecs from HTML 5, the forthcoming W3C spec that has been viewed as a threat to Flash, Silverlight, and similar technologies. 'After an inordinate amount of discussions on the situation, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that there is no suitable codec that all vendors are willing to implement and ship,' HTML 5 editor Ian Hickson wrote to the whatwg mailing list. Apple, for its part, won't support Ogg Theora in QuickTime, expressing concerns over patents despite the fact that the codec can be used royalty-free. Opera and Mozilla oppose using H.264 due to licensing and distribution issues. Google has similar reservations, despite already using H.264 and Ogg Theora in Chrome. Microsoft has made no commitment to support <video>."
Royalty-free doesn't mean the patents won't cause problems down the line.
You can get GPL stuff royalty free but it can royally hose you over in its interactions with other licenses or agreements.
No, because it is the only free and legal option open to all users and manufacturers. No one's saying it should ONLY be Theora, but as a base implementation, Theora should be specified. They can then add H264 or whatever as well if they wish, but for those who cannot use H264, Theora is a fallback available so that they can meet the standard. What good is a standard if you automatically prevent certain manufacturers from meeting it ? Oh that's right, it's not about creating a standard, it's about protecting someones IP and profits.