Re: [whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec

2009-05-31 Thread jjcogliati-whatwg

That is a potential problem, but for MPEG-1 it is less of a problem than with 
newer codecs.  Since the near complete MPEG-1 committee draft was publicly 
available in December 1991, remaining patents for decoding of the full MPEG-1 
spec should be expiring in the 2012 timeframe or before. 

The next question is why not just wait until the complete MPEG-1 can be 
decoded? If there is still no decision on a suitable codec for HTML5 when 
MPEG-1 becomes royalty free and MPEG-1 decoding starts showing up in things 
like gstreamer's good set of plugins then the full MPEG-1 might be worth 
considering then.  

--- On Sat, 5/30/09, Den.Molib den.mo...@gmail.com wrote:

 From: Den.Molib den.mo...@gmail.com
 Subject: Re: [whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec
 To: jjcogliati-wha...@yahoo.com, whatwg@lists.whatwg.org
 Date: Saturday, May 30, 2009, 5:20 AM
 I'm afraid that if using a subset of
 a bigger, patented, standard. 
 Some browsers will include the full codec. Web authors see
 their videos 
 reproduce correctly, and put them in the web thinking
 they're 'standard',
 while the user agents including only the license-free
 version won't be 
 able to view them.
 Thus de facto requiring the full support for the web, in
 what could be 
 considered a variant of 'embrace and extend' issues, even
 if not 
 intentional.
 
 
 
 


Re: [whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec

2009-05-31 Thread David Gerard
2009/5/31  jjcogliati-wha...@yahoo.com:

 The next question is why not just wait until the complete MPEG-1 can be 
 decoded? If there is still no decision on a suitable codec for HTML5 when 
 MPEG-1 becomes royalty free and MPEG-1 decoding starts showing up in things 
 like gstreamer's good set of plugins then the full MPEG-1 might be worth 
 considering then.


Despite the blatant FUD from Apple and Nokia on the topic, Ogg Theora
looks like (a) going into the browsers (Firefox, Chrome) and the
websites (Wikimedia, Dailymotion), leaving them to play catchup. At
that point the standard could be updated to reflect actual practice.


- d.


Re: [whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec

2009-05-31 Thread jjcogliati-whatwg



--- On Sat, 5/30/09, Silvia Pfeiffer silviapfeiff...@gmail.com wrote:

 From: Silvia Pfeiffer silviapfeiff...@gmail.com
 Subject: Re: [whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec
 To: jjcogliati-wha...@yahoo.com
 Cc: whatwg@lists.whatwg.org
 Date: Saturday, May 30, 2009, 6:45 AM
 On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 10:03
 PM,  jjcogliati-wha...@yahoo.com
 wrote:
 
  I propose that a MPEG-1 subset should be considered as
 the required
  codec for the HTML-5 video tag.
 
  == MPEG-1 Background ==
 
 ...
 
  == Brief comparison to other video codecs ==
 
 
 ...
 
  Ogg Theora and Ogg Vorbis are newer standards than
 MPEG-1.  My guess
  is that they can do substantially better at
 compression than MPEG-1.
  Assuming there are no submarine patents, I think the
 OGG codecs would
  be a better choice than MPEG-1.
 
 That's good to know.
 
 ...
 
  == Remaining Work ==
 
  I am not a lawyer.  In order to use MPEG-1 PRF,
 patent lawyers will
  have to investigate the patent issue and publicly
 report on the
  patent status.  Unless there is a report sitting
 around that can be
  published, this will likely be expensive.
 
 The reason that current browser vendors put forward for not
 supporting
 Ogg Theora/Vorbis is that there is no thorough report
 available on
 their patent status which also convincingly shows that the
 risk of
 submarine patents is minimal.
 
 If you would also prefer Ogg Theora/Vorbis over MPEG-1 PRF,
 then I
 don't understand why such a report should not rather be
 created about
 these codecs than on MPEG-1 PRF.
 
  As well, the prior art review is not complete.  The
 biggest missing
  piece is synthesis window for the audio layer.
 
 Same argument here for Ogg Theora/Vorbis.
 
 ...
 
  == Satisfaction of requirements ==
 
  From 4.8.7.1 HTML 5 draft:
  1. does not require per-unit or per-distributor
 licensing
  Probably.  There does not seem to be anyone
 requesting this kind of
  licensing right now.
 
  2. Must be compatible with the open source development
 model.
  Probably.  There does not seem to be any identified
 patents for MPEG-1 PRF.
 
  3. Is of sufficient quality as to be usable
  Yes.  Much better than the next best option of Motion
 JPEG.  Probably
  worse than Ogg Theora or H.264.
 
 These three are better satisfied by Ogg Theora/Vorbis.
 
  4. Is not an additional submarine patent risk for
 large companies.
  Probably.  It has been widely implemented (in DVD
 players, in Apple
  Quicktime and Microsoft Media Player) Note that these
 example uses
  have either a license for MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 however.
 
 Wide implementation does not save you from submarine
 patents. Nothing
 really does. Wide implementation only spreads the risk
 across more
 bodies. An existing lawsuit that has been resolved reduces
 the risk.
 But there will always be the risk of another unknown patent
 that could
 be interpreted to be infringed.
 
  == Conclusion ==
 
  The MPEG-1 PRF subset defined here seems to fit all
 the requirements
  of a codec for video for HTML5.  It seems to be
 patent free.  A final
  conclusion will depend on whether or not patent
 lawyers can sign off
  on this proposal and if the quality of MPEG-1 PRF is
 deemed
  sufficient.
 
 Honestly, I'd rather suggest spending the money on Ogg
 Theora if you
 are really suggesting spending money on lawyers and patent
 research.
 Ogg Theora/Vorbis is miles ahead of MPEG-1 in Quality and
 in
 increasingly wider spread use on the Web.


If the cost for patent clearing MPEG-1 PRF and Ogg Theora and Vorbis were the 
same, then I would completely agree with you.  I think that the cost for patent 
clearing MPEG-1 PRF would be cheaper for the following reasons:

1.  Age of Standard.  MPEG-1 final standard (parts 1,2,3) came out in August 
1993.  Ogg Theora standard came out in about 2004.  Basically, for all but the 
oldest unexpired patents, the MPEG-1 standard can be considered prior art, but 
for Theora, there is another decade of time where outside prior art needs to be 
found. 

2.  Simplicity.  MPEG-1 PRF is quite a bit simpler than Ogg Theora and Vorbis.  
Ogg Theora contains much of what is in MPEG-1 Video (such as Motion vectors) 
and much that is newer than MPEG-1.  

3.  Existing use.  MPEG-1 has been in use by major media players such as Apple 
Quicktime and Microsoft Media Player, so there probably are internal patent 
reviews that have been done.  (These are probably considered very proprietary, 
so this reason is very weak.)


So I think that a MPEG-1 PRF patent review would be cheaper than a Ogg Vorbis 
and Theora review.  

The questions I don't have a good answer to are how much better Ogg Theora and 
Vorbis are than MPEG-1 PRF, and how much more expensive patent reviewing Ogg 
Theora and Vorbis is compared to MPEG-1 PRF.  

I would like to see a comparison that shows Ogg Theora/Vorbis is miles ahead of 
MPEG-1 in Quality.  I would also like to know what kind of patent review has 
already been done on Ogg Theora and Vorbis

Re: [whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec

2009-05-31 Thread jjcogliati-whatwg

Thank you for a very informative reply.  Inline comments follow.

--- On Sun, 5/31/09, Gregory Maxwell gmaxw...@gmail.com wrote:

 From: Gregory Maxwell gmaxw...@gmail.com
 Subject: Re: [whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec
 To: whatwg@lists.whatwg.org
 Date: Sunday, May 31, 2009, 2:17 PM
 2009/5/31  jjcogliati-whatwg
 at yahoo.com:
  Since the near complete MPEG-1 committee draft was
 publicly available in December 1991,
 [snip]
 
 You keep repeating this particular piece of misinformation,
 so I'm
 worried that people are going to take your word for it and
 get into
 trouble.
 
 What you are claiming with respect to the inventors
 disclosure and
 patent duration is correct for patents filed and granted
 today but it
 not true for patents from the mid-1990s.
 
 Prior to mid-1995 was possible to use application
 extensions to defer
 the grant date of a patent indefinitely.  You could
 begin an
 application in 1988, publicly expose your invention in
 1991, all the
 while filing extensions only to have the patent granted in
 1995.
 
 I am somewhat surprised that you are unaware of this
 issue,
 considering that you mentioned it specifically by name
 (submarine
 patent).

Yes, I agree and I was not making this clear in my reply posts.  The first 
email I sent I did detail this.  

 I'm more familiar with the area of audio coding than video,
 so I don't
 have a ready list of patents that read on mpeg1 video.
 However, There
 are mid-90s patents which read on both layer-2 (e.g.
 5,214,678) and
 layer-3 audio which followed the 'submarine patent' style
 of prolonged
 application and late disclosure times.

That is interesting that 5,214,678 is considered to read on Layer-2 since
AudioMPEG says that they are not doing licensing for Video-CD, which uses
MPEG-1 Layer 2 audio.  It was granted in May 25, 1993 and filed on May 31, 
1990, so it barely made it in three years (and will not expire till 
May 31, 2010).  

http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=5,214,678
http://www.audiompeg.com/

 Additionally, Theora avoids some techniques used in MPEG1
 which have
 been believed to be patented.  For example, the
 differential coding of
 motion vectors. While I don't have the knowledge needed to
 provide a
 detailed analysis, even I know enough to point out at least
 a few
 engineering reasons why Theora has less patent exposure
 surface than
 MPEG1.

I can certainly believe that MPEG-1 Video might be non-royalty free and 
Theora might be.  I haven't really looked at the exact coding of Theora motion 
vectors.  That is an interesting thing to look at. 

 Without the benefit of mpeg layer-3 audio MPEG1 is left
 enormously
 handicapped compared to Theora+Vorbis. 16kHz 16bit stereo
 PCM is
 512kbit/sec on it own, which is comparable to the total
 bitrate 'high
 quality' option delivered by sites like Youtube. And 16kHz
 audio is
 pretty poor for anything that needs to carry music. 

Layer-2 audio can certainly beat PCM for compression, since it can reduce
the bit rate for coding the quieter frequency bands.  Typical stereo bit 
rates for stereo Layer 2 audio are probably more on the order of 256 
kbit/s.  Vorbis and MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 certainly can beat this rate.

 While you could
 argue for using MPEG1+Vorbis, none of the few parties who
 indicated
 that they would not ship Theora have stated they would (or
 are
 already) shipping Vorbis. (For example, Nokia does not ship
 Vorbis on
 their Linux tables)  Everyone shipping Vorbis already
 seems to have no
 issue with Theora.

I am not going to argue for MPEG-1 video plus Vorbis audio.  

 Even if you pay fairly low prices for transit the cost of
 sending PCM
 audio vs Vorbis is likely enough to pay for the H.264+AAC
 licensing no
 matter what it turns out to be in 2010.  A 'free'
 format which has an
 effective price much higher than the 'non-free' stuff would
 be
 something of a hollow victory.

Interesting point.  I think that transit costs will decrease 
faster than H.264+AAC licensing costs, (unless Theora and Vorbis 
start causing serious competion.)

 And really, now that we see multiple large companies with
 experienced
 legal teams and non-trivial exposure committed to shipping
 Theora I
 think we're kidding ourselves when we attempt to analyze
 this as a
 legal issue. It's not. It's a business/political decision.
 The market
 is now going to battle it out.  Enjoy the show.

I agree.  I was not aware that Google planned on shipping Theora support when I 
made the first email last week (Wikipedia article since updated). 
If Ogg Theora and Vorbis become the defacto standard, that is 
fine with me.  

Right now, the best video codec/audio codec that works with Gstreamer good 
plugins (i.e. Linux), Quicktime and Media Player is Motion JPEG with PCM 
audio, which I have used for shipping videos on CDs and USB drives, but is 
impractical for online transfers.  I am hoping for a better outcome with 
the video tag.  

Josh Cogliati


Re: [whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec

2009-05-30 Thread Den.Molib
I'm afraid that if using a subset of a bigger, patented, standard. 
Some browsers will include the full codec. Web authors see their videos 
reproduce correctly, and put them in the web thinking they're 'standard',
while the user agents including only the license-free version won't be 
able to view them.
Thus de facto requiring the full support for the web, in what could be 
considered a variant of 'embrace and extend' issues, even if not 
intentional.





Re: [whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec

2009-05-30 Thread Jonas Sicking
On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 4:20 AM, Den.Molib den.mo...@gmail.com wrote:
 I'm afraid that if using a subset of a bigger, patented, standard.
 Some browsers will include the full codec. Web authors see their videos
 reproduce correctly, and put them in the web thinking they're 'standard',
 while the user agents including only the license-free version won't be
 able to view them.
 Thus de facto requiring the full support for the web, in what could be
 considered a variant of 'embrace and extend' issues, even if not
 intentional.

This is why mozilla have chosen not to include h.264 support in
Firefox 3.5 where we're adding support for the video element. I
think it's unfortunate that google didn't make the same decision.

/ Jonas


[whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec

2009-05-29 Thread jjcogliati-whatwg

I propose that a MPEG-1 subset should be considered as the required
codec for the HTML-5 video tag.

== MPEG-1 Background ==

MPEG-1 was published as the ISO standard ISO 11172 in August 1993.  It
is a widely used standard for audio and video compression.  Both
Windows Media and Apple Quicktime support playing MPEG-1 videos using
Audio Layer 2.  MPEG-1 provides three different audio layers.  The
simplest is Audio Layer 1 and the most complicated is Audio Layer 3,
usually known as MP3. Since MPEG-1 includes MP3, a full implementation
of a MPEG-1 decoder would not be royalty free until either all the
essential MP3 patents expire, or a royalty free license is granted for
all the essential MP3 patents.

== MPEG-1 PRF ==

I propose the following subset of MPEG-1 as the MPEG-1 Potentially
royalty free subset (MPEG-1 PRF):

MPEG-1 Video without:
forward and backward prediction frames (B-frames)
dc-pictures (D-frames)

MPEG-1 Audio Layers 1 and 2 only (no Layer 3 audio)

This subset eliminates the currently patented MP3 portion of the
MPEG-1 Audio.  It also eliminates the non-needed B-frames and D-frames
because there is less prior art for them and this has the side effect
of simplifying MPEG-1 PRF decoding. 

== Patents ==

To the best of my knowledge, there are no essential patents on this
MPEG-1 PRF subset.  I have discussed this on a kuro5hin article, a
post on the gstreamer mailing list and the MPEG-1 discussion page at
Wikipedia, and no-one has been able to definitively list any patents on
this subset.

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/7/18/232618/312
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=257198.16969.qm%40web62405.mail.re1.yahoo.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:MPEG-1#Can_MPEG-1_be_used_without_Licensing_Fees.3F

That said, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.  There
still may certainly be patents on MPEG-1 PRF.  Next I will discuss
some prior art that exists for this subset.

== Prior Art for MPEG-1 PRF == 

The H.261 (12/90) specification contains most of the elements that
appear in MPEG-1 video with the exception of the B-Frames and
D-frames.  H.261 however only allows 352 x 288 and 176 x 144 sized
video.  H.261 is generally considered to be royalty free (such as by
the OMS video project).  There are no unexpired US patents listed for it on
the ITU patent database.

http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.261
http://www.itu.int/ipr/IPRSearch.aspx?iprtype=PS
http://blogs.sun.com/openmediacommons/entry/oms_video_a_project_of

As for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2, it is very close to MASCAM, which was
described in Low bit-rate coding of high-quality audio signals. An
introduction to the MASCAM system by G. Thiele, G. Stoll and M. Link,
published in EBU Technical Review, no. 230, pp. 158-181, August 1988

The Pseudo-QMF filter bank used by Layer 2 is similar to that
described in H. J. Nussbaumer. Pseudo-QMF Filter Bank, IBM technical
disclosure bulletin., Vol 24. pp 3081-3087, November 1981.

The MPEG-1 committee draft was publicly available as ISO CD 11172 by
December 6, 1991.  There is only a few year window for patents to have
been filed before this counts as prior art, and not have expired.

This list of prior art is by no means complete, in that there
certainly could be patents that are essential for a MPEG-1 PRF
implementation, but can not be invalided by this list of prior art.

In the US, patents filed before 1995 last the longer of 20 years after
they are filed or 17 years after they are granted.  They also have to
be filed within a year of the first publication of the method. This
means that for US patents, most (that is all that took less than three
years to be granted) patents that could apply to MPEG-1 will be
expired by December 2012 (21 years after the committee draft was
published.). 


== Brief comparison to other video codecs ==

Motion JPEG with PCM audio is the only codec that I know of that can
be played in a stock Windows, Linux and Mac OS X setup.  On the other
hand, since it is basically a series of JPEG images and a 'WAV' file,
the compression is much poorer than MPEG-1 PRF.

Ogg Theora and Ogg Vorbis are newer standards than MPEG-1.  My guess
is that they can do substantially better at compression than MPEG-1.
Assuming there are no submarine patents, I think the OGG codecs would
be a better choice than MPEG-1.  If you think that MPEG-1 PRF is not
royalty free, but Ogg Theora and Ogg Vorbis are, you may find that
comparing Theora to H.261 or Theora and Vorbis to MPEG-1 PRF is an
enlightening exercise.  Much of what is in MPEG-1 PRF is also in Ogg
Theora and Ogg Vorbis.

MPEG-2 is the next MPEG standard.  It mainly adds error correction and
interlacing.  Neither of these features is particularly important for
streaming video to computer monitors using a reliable data transport.
MPEG-2 definitely is patented, and will be until at least the 2018
time-frame. I don't think that this buys much over MPEG-1 PRF, and it
definitely adds more patent issues.

MPEG-4, H.264 have 

Re: [whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec

2009-05-29 Thread イアンフェッティ
MPEG-1 is not exactly a popular codec on the web if you look at the
breakdown of video files on the web. The most popular formats are H.264 and
FLV. H.264 currently offers the best performance in terms of image quality
and compression (and is already the de-facto choice in a large, and
increasing, set of cameras / editing software / ...). I don't think we would
be interested in supporting something like MPEG-1 which is, at this point in
time, far behind the curve. We have chosen to support H.264 + AAC as well as
Ogg (Theora + Vorbis) for video in Google Chrome, mainly because H.264 is
what we see as the best performing option and Ogg is (currently) the most
viable open alternative. Encouraging everyone to use MPEG-1 would just
result in a lesser user experience and more bandwidth consumption, neither
of which really interest us.
2009/5/29 jjcogliati-wha...@yahoo.com


 I propose that a MPEG-1 subset should be considered as the required
 codec for the HTML-5 video tag.

 == MPEG-1 Background ==

 MPEG-1 was published as the ISO standard ISO 11172 in August 1993.  It
 is a widely used standard for audio and video compression.  Both
 Windows Media and Apple Quicktime support playing MPEG-1 videos using
 Audio Layer 2.  MPEG-1 provides three different audio layers.  The
 simplest is Audio Layer 1 and the most complicated is Audio Layer 3,
 usually known as MP3. Since MPEG-1 includes MP3, a full implementation
 of a MPEG-1 decoder would not be royalty free until either all the
 essential MP3 patents expire, or a royalty free license is granted for
 all the essential MP3 patents.

 == MPEG-1 PRF ==

 I propose the following subset of MPEG-1 as the MPEG-1 Potentially
 royalty free subset (MPEG-1 PRF):

 MPEG-1 Video without:
 forward and backward prediction frames (B-frames)
 dc-pictures (D-frames)

 MPEG-1 Audio Layers 1 and 2 only (no Layer 3 audio)

 This subset eliminates the currently patented MP3 portion of the
 MPEG-1 Audio.  It also eliminates the non-needed B-frames and D-frames
 because there is less prior art for them and this has the side effect
 of simplifying MPEG-1 PRF decoding.

 == Patents ==

 To the best of my knowledge, there are no essential patents on this
 MPEG-1 PRF subset.  I have discussed this on a kuro5hin article, a
 post on the gstreamer mailing list and the MPEG-1 discussion page at
 Wikipedia, and no-one has been able to definitively list any patents on
 this subset.

 http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/7/18/232618/312

 http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=257198.16969.qm%40web62405.mail.re1.yahoo.com

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:MPEG-1#Can_MPEG-1_be_used_without_Licensing_Fees.3F

 That said, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.  There
 still may certainly be patents on MPEG-1 PRF.  Next I will discuss
 some prior art that exists for this subset.

 == Prior Art for MPEG-1 PRF ==

 The H.261 (12/90) specification contains most of the elements that
 appear in MPEG-1 video with the exception of the B-Frames and
 D-frames.  H.261 however only allows 352 x 288 and 176 x 144 sized
 video.  H.261 is generally considered to be royalty free (such as by
 the OMS video project).  There are no unexpired US patents listed for it on
 the ITU patent database.

 http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.261
 http://www.itu.int/ipr/IPRSearch.aspx?iprtype=PS
 http://blogs.sun.com/openmediacommons/entry/oms_video_a_project_of

 As for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2, it is very close to MASCAM, which was
 described in Low bit-rate coding of high-quality audio signals. An
 introduction to the MASCAM system by G. Thiele, G. Stoll and M. Link,
 published in EBU Technical Review, no. 230, pp. 158-181, August 1988

 The Pseudo-QMF filter bank used by Layer 2 is similar to that
 described in H. J. Nussbaumer. Pseudo-QMF Filter Bank, IBM technical
 disclosure bulletin., Vol 24. pp 3081-3087, November 1981.

 The MPEG-1 committee draft was publicly available as ISO CD 11172 by
 December 6, 1991.  There is only a few year window for patents to have
 been filed before this counts as prior art, and not have expired.

 This list of prior art is by no means complete, in that there
 certainly could be patents that are essential for a MPEG-1 PRF
 implementation, but can not be invalided by this list of prior art.

 In the US, patents filed before 1995 last the longer of 20 years after
 they are filed or 17 years after they are granted.  They also have to
 be filed within a year of the first publication of the method. This
 means that for US patents, most (that is all that took less than three
 years to be granted) patents that could apply to MPEG-1 will be
 expired by December 2012 (21 years after the committee draft was
 published.).


 == Brief comparison to other video codecs ==

 Motion JPEG with PCM audio is the only codec that I know of that can
 be played in a stock Windows, Linux and Mac OS X setup.  On the other
 hand, since it is basically a series of JPEG images and a 'WAV' file,
 the 

Re: [whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec

2009-05-29 Thread Benjamin M. Schwartz
Ian Fette (イアンフェッティ) wrote:
 We have chosen to support H.264 + AAC as well as
 Ogg (Theora + Vorbis) for video in Google Chrome

H.264 is heavily patented, and H.264 implementors typically acquire patent
licenses from MPEG LA.  However, as noted in [1], Chrome's use of ffmpeg
for codec support subjects it to the LGPL, which requires that any such
licenses be fully transferable and unrestricted.

How does Google intend to meet its legal obligations in reference to H.264
(and AAC)?

--Ben

[1] http://annevankesteren.nl/2009/05/web-video



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Re: [whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec

2009-05-29 Thread イアンフェッティ
preface: IANAL. This post is meant to briefly describe what we are doing,
not to give any legal guidance or opinions. It is not meant to be
authoritative, please look at the source code if you want to verify these
things yourself.
We are using H.264 in Google Chrome, not in Chromium. We do not have the
ffmpeg / h.264 related code in chromium (only the header files for ffmpeg),
ffmpeg and h.264 related stuff is a complete external dependency loaded at
run time. Chromium is the open source project, Google Chrome is the product
we build by taking that open source code [chromium] and adding a few things
that we don't make available in chromium (e.g. our artwork, and in this case
a binary for ffmpeg / h.264 related stuff that is loaded at run time).

2009/5/29 Benjamin M. Schwartz bmsch...@fas.harvard.edu

 Ian Fette (イアンフェッティ) wrote:
  We have chosen to support H.264 + AAC as well as
  Ogg (Theora + Vorbis) for video in Google Chrome

 H.264 is heavily patented, and H.264 implementors typically acquire patent
 licenses from MPEG LA.  However, as noted in [1], Chrome's use of ffmpeg
 for codec support subjects it to the LGPL, which requires that any such
 licenses be fully transferable and unrestricted.

 How does Google intend to meet its legal obligations in reference to H.264
 (and AAC)?

 --Ben

 [1] http://annevankesteren.nl/2009/05/web-video




Re: [whatwg] MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec

2009-05-29 Thread Benjamin M. Schwartz
Ian Fette (イアンフェッティ) wrote:
 We are using H.264 in Google Chrome, not in Chromium. We do not have the
 ffmpeg / h.264 related code in chromium (only the header files for ffmpeg),
 ffmpeg and h.264 related stuff is a complete external dependency loaded at
 run time. Chromium is the open source project, Google Chrome is the product
 we build by taking that open source code [chromium] and adding a few things
 that we don't make available in chromium (e.g. our artwork, and in this case
 a binary for ffmpeg / h.264 related stuff that is loaded at run time).

Thank you for this clear and detailed explanation.  I have downloaded a
recent Chrome release, and indeed, the package includes a binary of
libavcodec (avcodec-52.dll), and the binary contains h.264 support.  This
binary is distributed under the LGPLv2.1, which is the license of ffmpeg
and libavcodec. [1]

I am not a lawyer, a legal expert, or a licensing expert.  However,
according to my understanding of Section 11 of LGPLv2.1, an entity such as
Google is prohibited from distributing an LGPL-licensed work if they have
made any patent agreements pertinent to the work, unless those patent
agreements are also available to all humans for any purpose whatsoever.
From the license: [2]

For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free
redistribution of the Library by all those who receive copies directly or
indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and
this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the
Library. 

I have no specific knowledge of Google's licensing agreements regarding
h.264.  However, it seems very likely to me that Google has negotiated a
license that allows it to distribute h.264 decoders, but that this license
is non-transferable.  If that is the case, then the LGPL prohibits Google
from distributing ffmpeg/libavcodec at all.

Note that this has nothing whatsoever to do with Chrome.  Google would be
prohibited from distributing ffmpeg even if the Chrome project had never
been initiated, if it holds a typical h.264 patent license.

I hope that you will consult internal legal counsel on this matter, and
make sure that they are fully aware of the implications of the LGPL in
this case.  They will certainly be able to make better informed
recommendations than I can.

I also think this is a good example of the sort of legal complexity that
inevitably results from proprietary codecs and software patents.

--Ben Schwartz

[1] http://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html
[2] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html



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