5 ms·

Is there a way to add additional video support into Firefox through an addon?

ZeroGravitas 17y ago
Short answer, no. This is an evil plot or noble attempt (delete as appropriate) by Mozilla to promote royalty free audio and video standards on the web over popular standards with patent fees.
- protomyth 17y ago
  Are we really, really sure that no one is lurking with a patent?
  - ZeroGravitas 17y ago
    Oh the MPEG-LA have definitely got patents, but it's a bit uncharitable to characterize their first-hit-is-free strategy for web video as lurking.
    - evgen 17y ago
      I think protomyth was referring to the fact that while the Theora folks loudly claim to be unencumbered by patents this is a completely untested assertion and if such a patent were to show up they are without their own suite of patents with which to threaten the other party. MPEG-LA is covered by patents and has a licensing board, but the spec is also pretty-well vetted by various teams of lawyers and if someone tries to submarine a patent in they would find themselves facing a rather large, well-funded, and pissed off group with no qualms about burying the troll in counter-claims and long/expensive discovery, etc.
      - protomyth 17y ago
        Yep, you nailed what I meant but didn't spend enough time writing. I just get this feeling that, given the number of companies involved, the patent situation is a known quantity for MPEG-LA, whereas the situation around Theora hasn't been as well researched. Unless someone with a massive amount of lawyers starts the ball rolling, I really don't see hardware people building accelerators into chipsets for Theora like they have done for h.264.
  - AndrewDucker 17y ago
    That's why you make it possible to plug in any video codec you like, and isolate them from the Mozilla Foundation itself.
    - ZeroGravitas 17y ago
      Mozilla Foundation isn't trying to protect itself, it's trying to protect the web. You can disagree with that goal and/or with their strategy, but if you think it's just about Mozilla not wanting to pay fees then you're going to be very confused about what they do and why.

Short answer, no. This is an evil plot or noble attempt (delete as appropriate) by Mozilla to promote royalty free audio and video standards on the web over popular standards with patent fees.

protomyth 17y ago
Are we really, really sure that no one is lurking with a patent?
- ZeroGravitas 17y ago
  Oh the MPEG-LA have definitely got patents, but it's a bit uncharitable to characterize their first-hit-is-free strategy for web video as lurking.
  - evgen 17y ago
    I think protomyth was referring to the fact that while the Theora folks loudly claim to be unencumbered by patents this is a completely untested assertion and if such a patent were to show up they are without their own suite of patents with which to threaten the other party. MPEG-LA is covered by patents and has a licensing board, but the spec is also pretty-well vetted by various teams of lawyers and if someone tries to submarine a patent in they would find themselves facing a rather large, well-funded, and pissed off group with no qualms about burying the troll in counter-claims and long/expensive discovery, etc.
    - protomyth 17y ago
      Yep, you nailed what I meant but didn't spend enough time writing. I just get this feeling that, given the number of companies involved, the patent situation is a known quantity for MPEG-LA, whereas the situation around Theora hasn't been as well researched. Unless someone with a massive amount of lawyers starts the ball rolling, I really don't see hardware people building accelerators into chipsets for Theora like they have done for h.264.
- AndrewDucker 17y ago
  That's why you make it possible to plug in any video codec you like, and isolate them from the Mozilla Foundation itself.
  - ZeroGravitas 17y ago
    Mozilla Foundation isn't trying to protect itself, it's trying to protect the web. You can disagree with that goal and/or with their strategy, but if you think it's just about Mozilla not wanting to pay fees then you're going to be very confused about what they do and why.