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Really there's no way around this without a fight and without spending some serious money. Google (in particular YouTube) has 2 options. 1. Pay to license h.2
by mikeryan 16y ago
Really there's no way around this without a fight and without spending some serious money.
Google (in particular YouTube) has 2 options.
1. Pay to license h.264 (or some other proprietary codec)
2. Release alternative and competing codec and do battle in the court room.
Both options were going to require spending money so they're going with route 2 which is likely the better long term option. There's also a good chance they can get some other heavyweights to back them in support.
- roc 16y agoActually they went with "all of the above". All that h264 youtube video, as well as the h264 support in Chrome and Android aren't going anywhere. Google is playing for control. Likeliest outcome of VP8 being found infringing is some cross-licensing deal and new patent pool with Google as major stakeholder. They would thus have significant control over the resulting VP8 license costs vs being "just a customer" to the h264 group. Having a compete product thus acts as a powerful check on h264 licensing too. Google is simply trying to ensure that its business isn't held hostage by someone else. Either they win and no-one controls video, or they 'lose' and Google at least gets a hand on the wheel.