'Free' H.264 a Precursor To WebM Patent War?

webmink writes "The MPEG LA seem unwilling to explain why they have extended their 'free' H.264 streaming video policy now. This article unpacks the history of MPEG LA and then suggests the obvious — it's all because of WebM — and the worrying — maybe it's preparing the ground for opening a third front in the patent war against Google."

Comments

Re:Wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

What part of "royalty free forever" did you not understand?

A lot more than you apparently. Its royalty free for only ONE SPECIFIC type of streaming. AND you still need a licensed (not free) encoder/decoders. AND they can change their mind. The court fees for any defense you feel entitled too are yours to bear.

so there is no way for Firefox to offer this.

They have more than enough money to pay for this..

The 5million a year does not get you the right for 3rd party distribution. Firefox would not be permitted to be part of any Linux distribution for example with them also paying the 5 million. You would not longer be allowed to give a copy of a distribution to a friend. 3rd party distribution like this will *never* be permitted by MPEG-LA. Not permitting unrestricted 3rd party distribution is a violation of the Mozilla/GPL etc type license. It is simply not legal in the US and other countries that support software patents.

Re:It's not "Free" to begin with.

[TheRaven64]

the encoding is not free

Unless you use x.264.

In which case, you still need a patent license from the MPEG-LA if you live in a country where any of their patents are valid.

So all those open source projects like VLC, MPlayer, etc are paying through the nose to the MPEG-LA?

Nope, they all use FFMPEG, which is based in France. France does not recognise software patents, so they are not required to pay anything. Using them in the USA without a patent license, however, is illegal.