WHITE PAPERS SPONSORED PROFILES JOB BOARD WEBINAR CENTER FREE SOFTWARE BZ RESEARCH ALMSHAREPOINT EVENTS CALENDAR PRINT/PDF EDITION PRINT/PDF BACK ISSUES

SUBSCRIBE TODAY CUSTOMER SERVICE EDITORIAL CALENDAR EDITORIAL BEATS GUEST VIEW GUIDE SD TIMES 100 GUIDE EVENTS CALENDAR ADVERTISING ARTICLE REPRINTS REPORT A BUG SITE MAP

ABOUT US BZ MEDIA NEWS BZ RESEARCH NEWS ON MONDAY SPTECHREPORT SPTECHWEB SPTECHCON IPHONE/IPAD DEVCON ANDROID DEVCON PRIVACY POLICY CONTACT US

HOME >> LATEST NEWS

FSF throws support behind WebM codec

By David Rubinstein

January 19, 2011 — Calling the H.264 video codec “a non-starter for Web video,” the Free Software Foundation has thrown its support to the Google-led WebM project, and it's encouraging the industry to get behind it as well.

Brett Smith, license compliance engineer at the Foundation, said H.264 “is impossible to implement legally to provide users the ability to modify it and share those modifications.”

The H.264 codec is encumbered with multiple patents held under the MPEG-LA consortium umbrella, and it comes with relatively expensive royalty payments as well as limits on how developers license their own software. Google, on the other hand, “provides licenses that don’t conflict with free software licenses, and already has released a free version,” Smith said. “It is a strong candidate to be the standard for Web video.”

Smith said Google’s recent decision to abandon H.264 for WebM could also influence the World Wide Web Consortium to make WebM the standard codec for HTML5, which the W3C controls. “The W3C said HTML5 would be codec-agnostic before the WebM effort really got going, and we’d like to encourage them to push things to WebM.”

In a statement released today, FSF executive director Peter Brown said, “Through joint community effort in support of WebM, we can sustain the vision of the Web as free and unencumbered.”

Related Search Term(s): FSF, Google, video codecs, WebM

Share this link: http://sdt.bz/35190

Most Read Latest News Blog Resources

Apache adopts new top-level cloud project
Deltacloud seeks to create a standard RESTful API for interfacing with cloud providers, from Eucalyptus to OpenStack

T-Mobile's CIO talks up optimizing employee organization
Erez Yarkoni describes how his company gets thousands of developers to work together, efficiently

PaaS is the word on everyone’s mind
PaaSes are gaining interest from enterprises, but how should they be implemented?

Venture capitalists keep the U.S. tech industry afloat
Despite a sagging economy, software development still sees more employment and higher salaries

T-Mobile's CIO talks up optimizing employee organization
Erez Yarkoni describes how his company gets thousands of developers to work together, efficiently

Apache adopts new top-level cloud project
Deltacloud seeks to create a standard RESTful API for interfacing with cloud providers, from Eucalyptus to OpenStack

Venture capitalists keep the U.S. tech industry afloat
Despite a sagging economy, software development still sees more employment and higher salaries

Business Software Alliance warns of governments interfering with the cloud
Countries are capable of disrupting business with protectionist attitudes and confusing laws

The problem with perfection
"The perfect is the enemy of the good," Voltaire said, or nearly said. He could have been talking about software development.

Let's get real about women in tech
The first step in solving a problem is admitting that it exists.

Lots of news from Apple
Apple is regaining a place of central importance in the technology world that it hasn't held since the 1970s. Here's what's new.

Book Giveaway! Pro jQuery by Adam Freeman
Looking to learn more about jQuery? Like us on Facebook for a chance to win a digital copy!

Go from Hack to Counterattack Nowadays, software developers – like you – must implement some type of protection in order to ensure that you are being fully paid for the u...

Read a Quick Guide to HTML5 HTML5 is considered the single biggest leap forward in Web technology of the last generation — but with people pointing to everything from s...

The Hidden Costs of Software Licensing Moving beyond paper-based software licensing to more flexible, software-based licensing is a business decision. There is a growing trend tow...

Case Study: You May Need a Development Mechanic As a contractor for a major financial player in Germany, SOBEGE, a German-based consultancy specializing in embedded IT and web services, wa...

Technorati

Digg

Slashdot

Facebook

Friendfeed

Twitter

del.icio.us

From the Editors: Open codecs are important SD Times endorses WebM because of its openness; ads in (mobile) applications are gaining acceptance from users

HTML5 codec wars flare up again Google announces support for WebM, shaking up the once-sure consensus around H.264

Google fills HTML5 video hole The VP8 WebM video codec is going open source, giving HTML5 developers a non-commercial video alternative

Comments

01/19/2011 05:56:54 PM EST

I agree with the FSF and hope to see the end of the mpeg-la consortium.

CanadaFreeBooteR

01/24/2011 02:59:02 PM EST

When can we see companies such as Canon, Nikon, or Sony come out with camcoders or cameras that use this CODEC? Most video editing software will have to be updated to use this new CODEC. I hope Apple jumps on this for a future release of Quick Time Pro.

United StatesJames B.

Add comment

Name*
Email*
Country

Comment

From the Editors: Open codecs are important
SD Times endorses WebM because of its openness; ads in (mobile) applications are gaining acceptance from users Read More...

News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>

Download Current Issue
FEBRUARY 2012 PDF ISSUE

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Want to subscribe?

The problem with perfection
"The perfect is the enemy of the good," Voltaire said, or nearly said. He could have been talking about software development.
02/22/2012 11:13 AM EST

Let's get real about women in tech
The first step in solving a problem is admitting that it exists.
02/19/2012 04:16 AM EST

Lots of news from Apple
Apple is regaining a place of central importance in the technology world that it hasn't held since the 1970s. Here's what's new.
02/18/2012 07:10 PM EST

Book Giveaway! Pro jQuery by Adam Freeman
Looking to learn more about jQuery? Like us on Facebook for a chance to win a digital copy!
02/16/2012 10:58 AM EST

Literate programming: It's not going to happen.
Literate programming is an idealistic notion that has been rendered obsolete by modern source code editors and good programming practices.
02/15/2012 06:13 PM EST

Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.
02/09/2012 02:16 PM EST