Slashdot Mirror
Mozilla, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Others Form 'Alliance For Open Media'
BrianFagioli tips news that Mozilla, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Intel, Amazon, and Netflix are teaming up to create the Alliance for Open Media, "an open-source project that will develop next-generation media formats, codecs and technologies in the public interest." Several of these companies have been working on this problem alone: Mozilla started Daala, Google has VP9 and VP10, and Cisco just recently announced Thor. Amazon and Netflix, of course, are major suppliers of online video streaming, so they have a vested interested in royalty-free codecs. They're inviting others to join them — the more technology and patents they get on their side, the less likely they'll run into the issues that Microsoft's VC-1 and Google's VP8 struggled with. "The Alliance will operate under W3C patent rules and release code under an Apache 2.0 license. This means all Alliance participants are waiving royalties both for the codec implementation and for any patents on the codec itself."
Somehow I expect something named "Alliance For Open Media" to turn into some hideous new DRM scheme that clutch your gonads in fists of iron. With age comes incredible cynicism.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
anything they produce will be a) NOT purely free and open source software, b) NOT be absolutely free from the burden of patents, and c) WILL BE corrupted by closed source DRM...
so.. basically, its just business as usual and this is just some fluff PR piece
MPEG LA sues?
Media codecs are literally a patent minefield and even the likes of Microsoft or Google will have tough time breaking through the established monopolies.
Apple.
Desktop is one thing mobile is another. Without Apple it is DOA.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.