[whatwg] several messages regarding Ogg in HTML5

[Robert O'Callahan]

On Dec 12, 2007 9:47 PM, Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:

> > The way i see it there are 3 possibilities so far:
> > - use ogg, possible (but negligable) risk of submarine patents
>
> This is basically as acceptable to companies like Apple as H.264 is to the
> free software community.
>

I don't think so. At any time Apple could make a business decision to assume
the patent risk without changing the way they do business. For the free
software community to accept H.264 we'd need either an appropriate
royalty-free patent license (which would be fantastic, but seems highly
improbable), or we'd have to give up on free software.

Ogg isn't a choice, unfortunately.


That sounds more immutable than it is. Apple and Nokia and others could
change their minds at any time, for example if a large enough quantity of
Theora content emerged that the value to their users balanced the perceived
risk.

Rob
-- 
"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred
denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back,
so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled." "You
have judged correctly," Jesus said. [Luke 7:41-43]
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