>it does look like VP8 will be a much more approachable codec thanks to being open source How is VP8 'open source'? It is a standard. There exist open source i

>it does look like VP8 will be a much more approachable codec thanks to being open source How is VP8 'open source'? It is a standard. There exist open source implementation(s). However there are open source implementations of H.264 decoders and encoders as well, it even has a reference implementation [1] that anybody can use[2] (patent issues aside, but (understandably) very few open source projects offer the users patent indemnification). Is it any wonder that most non-tech people are confused about these issues when even people in the tech community don't seem to understand the differences between standards and implementations, between 'open source' and 'free as in beer' and between secret proprietary formats and open standards? Sadly we seem to be at a point where 'open', 'standard' and 'free' are just words thrown about to mean 'something I like'. [1] http://iphome.hhi.de/suehring/tml/download/ http://iphome.hhi.de/suehring/tml/download/ [2] http://iphome.hhi.de/suehring/tml/download/COPYRIGHT_ISO_IEC.txt http://iphome.hhi.de/suehring/tml/download/COPYRIGHT_ISO_IEC...