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MPEG LA Extends H.264 Royalty-Free Period
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."
Please, dude... I know you loooove Apple more like your (non-existing? this is /. after all ;) girlfriend. And that’s all good. Do whatever makes your happy. :) ;)
But please keep it down with using the Apple brand name for every type of product out there. Ok?
I hate to tell you, but: Reality does not equal Apple!
You could just as easily have said the factually correct thing:
In 6 years time, there’ll be an awful lot of smart phones / mobile computers in the wild.
Frankly, I doubt that even in the US many people will still care about Apple that much in 6 years, when the reality distortion bubble (the one that lets their products look like they could compete) will become its first gaping holes.
And that is not meant as as offense. Even though religious people will see it like that anyway. (See Mohammad caricatures.)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
This is absurd. You're arguing in favor of the inferior codec on the grounds that, "for 90% of the video, it won't matter." What about the 10% for which it does?
Or, put differently, if YouTube and Hulu gave users a choice between h.264 and Theora, everyone (except the freetards (I normally don't use that term, but in this case it really does apply)) would choose h.264.