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I'm pretty libertarian, but for things like standards and formats, I really think the government should be stepping in and taking control. Standards, formats, a

I'm pretty libertarian, but for things like standards and formats, I really think the government should be stepping in and taking control. Standards, formats, and basic internet access are the new "roads" of the modern world. Commerce can flourish when we aren't fighting over them. Even for something R&D heavy like video codecs. How much money are we dumping into the NSA right now? Use some of that.

WiseWeasel 14y ago
Which government institution should decide on the video codec for everyone to use? How would they know when it's time to switch? I cannot see that working any better than MPEG and MPEG-LA.
- Ralith 14y ago
  If it worked about the same but the results were public domain, I'd call that a pretty big win.
- colinshark 14y ago
  That institution probably does not exist. The Federal and State governments are still trying to figure out what an Internet is. This isn't even on their radar. For codecs, the government would not even need to regulate. As long as the offerings are good, the industry would be compelled to adopt them because of the lack of licensing costs and for the long term stability. Continuous R&D would still be necessary.
- bzbarsky 14y ago
  Well, for cryptographic hashes the relevant institution in the US is NIST and they switch at a point when there start to be worries about the previous hash being subject to successful attacks sometime in the future. There's no reason in principle that the same approach, again with NIST as the relevant institurion, could not be used for video codecs. It would be better than the MPEG-LA because the patent situation could be made much simpler (e.g. automatic patent licenses would be granted to all implementors of the standard).
  - WiseWeasel 14y ago
    Other countries also use video codecs.
    - bzbarsky 14y ago
      Sure. Unfortunately, the UN doesn't seem to be all that interested in this sort of problem that I've seen.
lukifer 14y ago
There doesn't need to be control taken; instead, the government could just buy the patents to the best codecs and open them up. Software infrastructure, if you will. It's sad and ironic that Google is doing this more effectively than We The People, it least in cases where their interests are aligned with the commons.
kierank 14y ago
Government is taking control. ITU-T (which is one of the standardisation bodies behind HEVC) is part of the United Nations.
CamperBob2 14y ago
This is basically how TV already works. Do you want Web "standards and formats" to last as long as NTSC did? Imagine using IE6 for the next 50 years. That's what government involvement will get us.
taligent 14y ago
Exactly. Which is why the US and EU governments are fighting against Google, Samsung and HTC who are abusing FRAND obligations and undermining the concept of standards.

WiseWeasel 14y ago

Which government institution should decide on the video codec for everyone to use? How would they know when it's time to switch? I cannot see that working any better than MPEG and MPEG-LA.

Ralith 14y ago
If it worked about the same but the results were public domain, I'd call that a pretty big win.
colinshark 14y ago
That institution probably does not exist. The Federal and State governments are still trying to figure out what an Internet is. This isn't even on their radar. For codecs, the government would not even need to regulate. As long as the offerings are good, the industry would be compelled to adopt them because of the lack of licensing costs and for the long term stability. Continuous R&D would still be necessary.
bzbarsky 14y ago
Well, for cryptographic hashes the relevant institution in the US is NIST and they switch at a point when there start to be worries about the previous hash being subject to successful attacks sometime in the future. There's no reason in principle that the same approach, again with NIST as the relevant institurion, could not be used for video codecs. It would be better than the MPEG-LA because the patent situation could be made much simpler (e.g. automatic patent licenses would be granted to all implementors of the standard).
- WiseWeasel 14y ago
  Other countries also use video codecs.
  - bzbarsky 14y ago
    Sure. Unfortunately, the UN doesn't seem to be all that interested in this sort of problem that I've seen.

lukifer 14y ago

There doesn't need to be control taken; instead, the government could just buy the patents to the best codecs and open them up. Software infrastructure, if you will. It's sad and ironic that Google is doing this more effectively than We The People, it least in cases where their interests are aligned with the commons.

kierank 14y ago

Government is taking control. ITU-T (which is one of the standardisation bodies behind HEVC) is part of the United Nations.

CamperBob2 14y ago

This is basically how TV already works. Do you want Web "standards and formats" to last as long as NTSC did? Imagine using IE6 for the next 50 years. That's what government involvement will get us.

taligent 14y ago

Exactly. Which is why the US and EU governments are fighting against Google, Samsung and HTC who are abusing FRAND obligations and undermining the concept of standards.