" if they [Google] should have any. [VP8 patents]"
Of the recent noise over VP8, the Register had the text:
Asked if it [ MPEG LA] has discussed the issue with Google, the organization said: "MPEG LA’s call for patents is open to anyone with essential VP8 patents including Google, if they should have any."
Google, according to a statement sent to The Reg, is unmoved. "MPEG LA has alluded to a VP8 pool since WebM launched - this is nothing new," the statement reads. "The web succeeds with open, community-developed innovation, and the WebM Project brings the same principles to web video.
The Register also noted:
Google acquired the VP8 codec early last year when it purchased video compression outfit On2 Technologies in a deal valued at $124.6m dollars, and it was widely expected that the web giant would open source the codec as a way of countering the patented H.264. In May, at the its annual developer conference, Google did just that, saying it wished to create a web video standard unencumbered by licensing fees.
Mozilla and Opera immediately embraced the effort. The stable versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox, and Opera now include the codec for use with the fledgling HTML5 video tag, and though Chrome initially offered the royalty-saddled H.264 as well, Google dropped H.264 last month in the hopes of speeding the adoption of WebM.
On the theme of uncertainty in intellectual property, The Register wrote:
Microsoft and Apple do not. Both are part of MPEG LA's H.264 patent pool, and both include H.264 in their browsers. Before the arrival of WebM, Apple said it preferred H.264 due to the "uncertain patent landscape" of Ogg Theora – an open source WebM predecessor – and Ogg's lack of hardware support, and Microsoft indicated it feels much the same way, saying the intellectual property rights of Ogg and other codecs were "less clear". In a private email that was made very public, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs even said that unnamed people were putting together a patent pool to "go after" Ogg Theora.
Asked if it [ MPEG LA] has discussed the issue with Google, the organization said: "MPEG LA’s call for patents is open to anyone with essential VP8 patents including Google, if they should have any."
Google, according to a statement sent to The Reg, is unmoved. "MPEG LA has alluded to a VP8 pool since WebM launched - this is nothing new," the statement reads. "The web succeeds with open, community-developed innovation, and the WebM Project brings the same principles to web video.
The Register also noted:
Google acquired the VP8 codec early last year when it purchased video compression outfit On2 Technologies in a deal valued at $124.6m dollars, and it was widely expected that the web giant would open source the codec as a way of countering the patented H.264. In May, at the its annual developer conference, Google did just that, saying it wished to create a web video standard unencumbered by licensing fees.
Mozilla and Opera immediately embraced the effort. The stable versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox, and Opera now include the codec for use with the fledgling HTML5 video tag, and though Chrome initially offered the royalty-saddled H.264 as well, Google dropped H.264 last month in the hopes of speeding the adoption of WebM.
On the theme of uncertainty in intellectual property, The Register wrote:
Microsoft and Apple do not. Both are part of MPEG LA's H.264 patent pool, and both include H.264 in their browsers. Before the arrival of WebM, Apple said it preferred H.264 due to the "uncertain patent landscape" of Ogg Theora – an open source WebM predecessor – and Ogg's lack of hardware support, and Microsoft indicated it feels much the same way, saying the intellectual property rights of Ogg and other codecs were "less clear". In a private email that was made very public, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs even said that unnamed people were putting together a patent pool to "go after" Ogg Theora.
posted by Lawrence B. Ebert at 12:27 AM
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