[whatwg] Codecs (was Re: Apple Proposal for Timed Media Elements)

[Ian Hickson]

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007, Robert Sayre wrote:
> 
> MPEG-4 is proprietary, because it is covered by patents.

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but CSS is covered by patents, 
HTML is covered by patents, the DOM is covered by patents, JavaScript is 
covered by patents, and so forth. Proprietary technologies are those that 
are under the control of a single vendor. MPEG-4 is not proprietary.

It's not available under royalty free licensing. But it is not under the 
control of a single vendor. That is the important difference, not whether 
the technology is patented or not.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'