
Know Your Rights: H.264, patent licensing, and you - duck
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/04/know-your-rights-h-264-patent-licensing-and-you
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zppx
This was posted last night: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1319865>

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hackermom
Finally a worthy debunking of the FUD spread by Mozilla, Thom Holwerda etc.
regarding the license fees surrounding H.264.

I wonder if this article will finally be enough to make people understand that
Mozilla et al. are either a) confused or b) deliberately spreading lies to
instill fear of the H.264 format (while, oddly enough, in the past, they never
made a sound about MPEG-1 Layer-III, MPEG-2 video, MPEG-4 ASP video, or AAC
audio, all covered by the same licenses).

Really, get it into your heads already:

1) YOU ARE NOT SUBJECT TO LICENSING FEES AS AN END CONSUMER ENJOYING MPEG
VIDEO/AUDIO

2) YOU ARE NOT SUBJECT TO LICENSING FEES WHEN DISTRIBUTING _FREE_ MPEG
VIDEO/AUDIO IN A NON-COMMERCIAL CONTEXT

3) YOU ARE NOT SUBJECT TO LICENSING FEES WHEN DEVELOPING A VIDEO/AUDIO CODEC
THAT CREATES MPEG VIDEO/AUDIO WHEN THE SOFTWARE IS _FREE_ AND NON-COMMERCIAL

4) YOU ARE NOT SUBJECT TO LICENSING FEES WHEN YOU, USING ANY SOFTWARE, CREATE
MPEG VIDEO/AUDIO THAT WILL BE USED IN A _FREE_ , NON-COMMERCIAL CONTEXT

addendum, 5) YOU ARE NOT SUBJECT TO LICENSING FEES WHEN YOU DEVELOP SOFTWARE
THAT CONTAINS MPEG VIDEO/AUDIO DECODERS/ENCODERS, IF THE DECODERS/ENCODERS AND
THE HOUSING SOFTWARE IS _FREE_ AND NON-COMMERCIAL

The last point is aimed at developers of software like video players and web
browsers, such as Firefox, which just happens to reside in a commercial
context due to the massive, multi-million revenues generated by f.e. sponsored
search, thus being subject to licensing fees for incorporating H.264
playback...which the Mozilla Foundation of course don't want to be subjected
to, because that means less revenue. Remember: profit is the _foundation_ of
all industry, and maximizing that profit is the _goal_ of all industry.

Sorry for the yelling; just had to get that out of my system. Stupid, greedy
Mozilla keep pushing my buttons.

~~~
acg
There's nothing wrong with Mozilla. The browsing consumer has a choice to
choose another browser. I happen to think more than one video format in HTML5
is good for the consumer. If H264 does become the dominant format, then there
is nothing to stop the licensing being revised a a future date. To prevent
this perhaps you would have an alternative codec ready as an alternative so
licensing remains competitively priced.

Monopoly isn't the foundation of industry, but often laziness.

Mozilla's outpourings, I think, are more of a campaign to get a free
alternative to E264. As with all campaigns it could be economical with the
truth. It remains to be seen if they have made the right move.

~~~
hackermom
What's wrong are the misconceptions they are deliberately spreading to further
their agenda. I am all for multiple choices just like you; I dislike that f.e.
Safari has only H.264 support in its native HTML5 video component (problem
solved if you have the XiphQT plugin, which takes 2 seconds to download and
copy to your ~/Library) just as much as I dislike that Firefox has only Theora
support. I want both FF and Safari to support _both_ so the user doesn't have
to friggin' switch browser to enjoy this and that website's content -
thankfully I can stick to Safari since XiphQT does an awesome job, and I'm
damned happy to be able to see both H.264 and Theora content without having to
juggle applications. And, admittedly, had I been in charge of picking just
_one_ codec for the future, the choice would be _so_ easy, because in this
debate I am all about video/audio quality for the end user, and I rrrrreally
don't think the world of web video would ever have the carpet swept from under
its feet by the MPEG-LA.

The notable difference here is that the H.264 camp in this debate isn't
spewing bullshit all over the place.

~~~
metajack
Have you missed the vague patent threats against Theora?

MPEG-LA has spewed their share of bullshit, and Thompson before it spewed
plenty as well.

