I think this story sounds like great news. MPEG LA's licensors include the research labs -- Fraunhofer, etc -- not your usual patent trolling companies. This

I think this story sounds like great news. MPEG LA's licensors include the research labs -- Fraunhofer, etc -- not your usual patent trolling companies. This gives the labs a sugar daddy (Google) that has a commercial interest in paying them for it their advances to be licensed to the public. Which is a nice release valve, because government budget squeezes means there's always more and more pressure for research labs to lock up their tech to earn money from commercialising it. Good on Google for doing this.