[opendtv] News: Is Apple Planning A Move Against Ogg Theora?
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 08:23:05 -0400
Is Apple Planning A Move Against Ogg Theora?
By: David Murphy
05.01.2010
Apple's been stepping up its game lately and, regardless of criticism
amongst tech industry pundits, the company appears to be planting its
flag in the ground on three separate fronts: video codecs, Flash, and
the media. Most recently, even CEO Steve Jobs himself has been pulled
into the fray in the first two battles on that list, and his comments
indicate that Apple is ready to carve its own path through the
unfolding future of HTML5-based content rendering.
Late this past Friday, Hugo Roy--an assistant at the Free Software
Federations's European wing--allegedly received a message from Jobs
in response to a blog Roy wrote questioning Apple's use of the H.264
video codec. The entire source of the discussion stems from a missive
on Apple's site, penned by Jobs, which takes Adobe to task for its
proprietary products while touting H.264-encoded, HTML5-based video
as the future of online media distribution.
Roy correctly points out that H.264 is not in itself a "free" or
"open" codec, as both, "vendors and commercial users of products
which make use of H.264/AVC are expected to pay patent licensing
royalties for the patented technology."
It's the exact reason why both Mozilla and Opera have decided not to
implement H.264-based video playback in future iterations of their
browsers: not just because of the finances involved, but because--at
least, for Mozilla--it would run contrary to their stated principles
of working toward a completely open Web environment.
However, Jobs' response to Roy's post suggests that the "open"
alternatives--like Ogg Theora--might not remain as such for much
longer.
"All video codecs are covered by patents," writes Jobs. "A patent
pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other "open source"
codecs now. Unfortunately, just because something is open source, it
doesn't mean or guarantee that it doesn't infringe on others patents.
An open standard is different from being royalty free or open source."
Ironically, this position puts Apple and Microsoft hand-in-hand, as
both companies are backing H.264--and that codec only--for HTML5
video rendering. To Microsoft, H.264 video represents a broad,
standardized solution that allows users to benefit from
hardware-based video acceleration. As well, adopting other codecs
like Ogg Theora could put Microsoft in shakier legal territory versus
the more centralized ownership and licensing of H.264.
"Other codecs often come up in these discussions. The distinction
between the availability of source code and the ownership of the
intellectual property in that available source code is critical,"
writes Dean Hachamovitch, Internet Explorer General Manager.
"Today, intellectual property rights for H.264 are broadly available
through a well-defined program managed by MPEG LA. The rights to
other codecs are often less clear, as has been described in the
press."
Ogg Theora backers Mozilla and Opera remain resolute in their support
of the format, which could open up each company's products to risk
should Apple pursue its alleged push against Ogg Theora.
Nevertheless, the larger moves by the world's big browser
manufactures toward HTML5 at all costs (and all codecs) signal that
Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Opera are drawing a line in the sand
against Adobe's Flash.
But it's not as if the latter is ready to throw in the towel just
yet, nor even concede that the evolving shape of the HTML5-based Web
is a battleground to begin with:
"I keep seeing the video standards discussion phrased as "H.264 vs.
Flash video" (e.g. John Gruber writing about Apple "replacing" Flash
video with H.264). Apparently people are unaware that Flash has been
playing H.264 for years. It's easily the most popular H.264 player in
the world," writes Adobe Principal Product Manager John Nack.
"Adobe's choice to embrace H.264 in Flash is what allows sites like
Vimeo and YouTube to create HTML5/AVC (i.e., non-Flash) versions of
their sites without gobbling up petabytes of storage and loads of CPU
cycles creating and storing alternate versions of their videos.
Instead of locking people into some proprietary solution it created,
Adobe has spent millions of dollars to enable use of a more standard
format."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts:
