Thread: Nokia attacks VP8
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2013-03-28 , 07:30
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#7
Originally Posted by shmerl View Post
VP8 is BSD licensed, which is even more permissive than GPL, so I'm not sure what your non GPL argument was about. VP8 is actively developed with participation of Xiph so it is open project.
To note - VP8 is the only open high quality codec suitable for streaming at present. So whatever the intention of Google was, the benefit is obvious - open codec for everyone to use. The only potential alternative could be Daala codec, but it's in early development so it's a non option (yet).
What about Dirac? Dirac Pro was used internally by the BBC to transmit HDTV pictures at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The BBC does not own any patents on Dirac. They previously had some patent applications with plans to irrevocably grant a royalty-free licence for their Dirac-related patents to everyone, but they let the applications lapse. In addition, the developers have said they will try to ensure that Dirac does not infringe on any third party patents, enabling the public to use Dirac for any purpose. Or is it out-of-date by now?
And, Daala is the next generation video codec developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation intended to for use cases similar to those of VP9 and h.265.
Of the current open, GPL-licensed video codecs, there are also Huffyuv and its fork Lagarith. Xvid is GPL-licensed, but has patent issues. Theora is well established as a video format in open source applications, and is the format used for Wikipedia's video content.
In short term, Google's action is benevolent. But in long term, it's going to create a lock-in, akin to current video-served-as-Flash, since all the websites will decide to serve content in this one format. In long term, it would have been better to have a diversity of formats, open and close, and let the end-user and the content-server negotiate which one of a wide selection of formats is preferable. Just my opinion.
Best wishes.
 

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