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h.264 is far, far more open than Flash. What matters is that the spec is public and that you can choose from many implementations. There are no usable competing
by tlb 17y ago
h.264 is far, far more open than Flash. What matters is that the spec is public and that you can choose from many implementations. There are no usable competing implementations of Flash, but dozens for h.264 including excellent open-source ones.
The h.264 terms aren't onerous. If you ship less than 100,000 devices you pay nothing. At large scale, it's $0.10 / unit. When selling hardware, that's a pretty light tax.
As Jobs points out, Theora is not immune to patents. On2's many patents are irrevocably licensed for free, but there are thousands more patents that may apply held by trolls. It sucks to ship devices with unknown patent liabilities. It almost destroyed RIM, for example.
- dhimes 17y agoHere's a summary of the license terms: http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Documents/AVC_TermsSummary.pdf http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Documents/AVC_TermsS... Let's say you make videos and sell access to them on your web site on a title-by-title basis :) Videos <= 12 min, no charge. Videos > 12 min, USD $0.02 per title or 2% of access price, whichever is less.
- cpr 17y agoOh, maybe that's the basis of the general YouTube 10-minute limit...
- dhimes 17y agoPerhaps, but that policy would be forward-looking. Current there's no charge for web delivered content if you don't charge for access.
- ZeroGravitas 17y agoIt pays to be forward looking when your supplier reserves the rights to re-negotiate your terms.
- tlb 17y agoRight, 2% is unlikely to change anyone's business model.