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Apple, Microsoft Come Out Against Open Source Video Codecs
- buster 16y agoHopefully, the web will do the right thing and support open codecs (theora, or even vp8 anyone?). It's horrible how often in the last days i have heard "yay, see? Flash is bad! Apple wants HTML5!" when in reality they are saying "flash videos are dead, but MS and Apple want HTML5 with videocodecs to earn even more money and exclude competition". In my world it should be "flash videos are dead, but the majority of browsers settled on an open codec and so should MS&Apple". Yes, Flash for video will hopefully be dead, but please don't exchange it with just another closed technology!
- jsz0 16y agoThe risk of the unknown is worse than the risk of H264 license fees. Theora and other OSS codecs will be legally tested sooner or later. Until they are tested they will be at a huge disadvantage. Why not get it over with? Arguing that you don't like IP law, or you personally have faith these codecs don't violate someone's IP, or they shouldn't be legally tested is a head-in-the-sand perspective.
- tuxychandru 16y agoH.264 also needs to be legally tested to confirm that they do not infringe on patents held by entities other than those forming the MPEG LA. So there is just as much risk of the unknown in H.264 as in Theora.