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MPEG LA Extends H.264 Royalty-Free Period

Posted by timothy on from the now-how-much-would-you-pay? dept.

Sir Homer writes "The MPEG LA has extended their royalty-free license (PDF) for 'Internet Video that is free to end users' until the end of 2016. This means webmasters who are registered MPEG LA licensees will not have to pay a royalty to stream H.264 video for the next six years. However the last patent in the H.264 portfolio expires in 2028, and the MPEG LA has not released what fees, if any, it will charge webmasters after this 'free trial' period is over."

4 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Data transfer? by sakdoctor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Software patents? That's just absurd.

  2. SS H.264 submarine patent by denis-The-menace · · Score: 5, Insightful

    2010: DIVE! DIVE!
    It's free, come and get it

    2016: Up periscope. Look there's someone using it without paying the $799/Stream licensing fee.
    -Arm MPEG LAwyer Torpedoes, FIRE!

    looks like a ambush in slow-motion.

    --
    Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
  3. And even if sucked by DrYak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know, Theora video doesn't suck.

    And even if it sucked, that wouldn't matter anyway :
    most of video today consist of short snips on social websites of dancing cats filmed with a camera phone with crappy sensors and low quality MJPEG compression.

    Arguing that Theora would need more bits to achieve the same quality as other codec is akin to arguing that Youtube should spend more bits to be better faithful to all the compression artifacts.
    Theora opponents say that, for the same bits bandwidth, Theora video is blurrier. I'm saying that this blur won't hide any critical detail. It will only blur out the noise from the camera phone's crappy sensor and from the MJPEG'S 50% compression. I personally *can* live without them, if it is what it takes to have a open free/libre standard.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  4. Re:Nice by slim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In 6 years time, there'll be an awful lot of iPhones/iPads (and their descendants) in the wild.

    Expect H.264, and maybe some other patent-encumbered standards, to be the only video format a web site can use in order to be viewed on these devices.

    The options for video websites in 2016? Pay up, or abandon iPhone/iPad users. Plus who knows how many other closed platforms.