The Looming Video Codec Fight

itwbennett writes "With both Apple and Microsoft promoting HTML5 standards, you'd think that there would be joy in software freedom land. But instead there's another fight brewing. 'While it is true that HTML5 video is a step in the right direction, we also have to take into consideration the underlying codecs used to deliver the video content,' says blogger Brian Proffitt. The problem, says Proffitt, is that Microsoft and Apple's browsers will be supporting only the proprietary H.264 video codec by default. But Google supports only the WebM (VP8) and Ogg Theora codecs. 'So, basically, if Ogg Theora content starts making a dent in Apple and Microsoft's bottom line, or that of the MPEG LA's, then expect to see a lawsuit or two headed Google's way after 2015,' concludes Proffitt."

Comments

Re:Or we could just fix patents and be done with i

[BitZtream]

Patent pools are incompatible with free/open source.

I'm sorry, thats flat out false is most ways.

It has nothing at all to do with 'open', well if it does, its only in that the MPEG-LA license is pretty much the definition of open license. It also has nothing at all to do with 'Free as in speech', it does however have something to do with 'free as in beer'. The open part may not be what you define open as, but it fits pretty accurately for everyone not part of the RMS cult.

If someone forces mozilla to licence a patent, guess what only mozilla can use that code and its not free software no more.

Completely untrue. You can do whatever you'd like with the source, as long as you hold a patent license. You're required to license the software from Mozilla, but you think its different because you would also be required to hold another license ... for the technology that Mozilla uses?

Why is it that its okay for Mozilla to have restrictions on their code and require conditions of a license to be met, but its not for MPEG-LA?

You're just upset you won't be able to get someone elses work for free, nothing more.

They didn't invent ANYTHING they licence out by the way, MPEG-LA is not MPEG.

MPEG-LA represents the combined companies who invented the technologies in the codec. Instead of having to deal with 900 companies to license it, you deal with one. Which is ... almost exactly like the function Mozilla holds for its contributors. Much of Mozilla is code they didn't create, but redistribute on behalf of the creators. Its the same thing.

We might well end up with a scenario that the only browsers distributable with linux are those without video.

I'm sorry your OS sucks, but out of the top 3, yours is the only one that can't effectively deal with the situation in a clean way. In both Windows and OS X, Firefox could simply support video supplied by the OS codecs, and no one would have a problem.

Instead, in typical OSS fashion, Firefox uses no system wide systems anywhere it can avoid it, so you don't really get to take advantage of built in codecs.

Unfortunately for you, OS X and Windows support this facility ( and have for years ), pretty much everyone running one of Windows has at least one h264 codec already installed for some other random app anyway (lets face it, the licenses are dirt cheap, so lots of apps include it already), OS X of course has a license built in. Safari and IE are happy to use the system wide codec system, I presume Chrome does as well on Windows as it never gives me any problems.

So basically it'll just be Linux and Firefox users without video.

If you want to 'take the moral high ground' to the extreme, then you just have to recognize that there are going to be plenty of times when you don't get your way because no one else cares about your irrational response to what you perceive as a problem in the natural order of things.

A world without firefox, VLC , and so on is a world without free access to user created content, and that ultimately is a spike in the heart of free speech.

Really? I seem to remember free speech and user created content before GNU, GPL and Netscape existed, let alone Mozilla or VLC.

You're pretty delusional. No one is ever going to take you seriously with those kind of theatrics.

You're acting like Al Gore.