+1 On 2/21/10, Laxmi Khatiwada <[email protected]> wrote: > FW from FSD > > Foss in market? > > Openpen letter to Google: free VP8, and use it on YouTube > <http://www.fsf.org/share/?u=http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community> > > Dear Google, > > With your purchase of On2, you now own both the world's largest video site > (YouTube) and all the patents behind a new high performance video codec -- > VP8. Just think what you can achieve by releasing the VP8 codec under an > irrevocable royalty-free license and pushing it out to users on YouTube? You > can end the web's dependence on patent-encumbered video formats and > proprietary software (Flash). > > To sit on this technology or merely use it as a bargaining chip would be a > disservice to the free world, while bringing at best limited short-term > benefits to your company. To free VP8 without recommending it to YouTube > users would be a wasted opportunity and damaging to free software browsers > like Firefox. We all want you to do the right thing. Free VP8, and use it on > YouTube! > > *Why this would be amazing* > > The world would have a new free format unencumbered by software patents. > Viewers, video creators, free software developers, hardware makers -- > everyone -- would have another way to distribute video without patents, > fees, and restrictions. The free video format Ogg Theora was already at > least as good for web video (see a > comparison<http://people.xiph.org/~greg/video/ytcompare/comparison.html>) > as its nonfree competitor H.264, and we never did agree with your objections > to using it. But since you made the decision to purchase VP8, presumably > you're confident it can meet even those objections, and using it on YouTube > is a no-brainer. > > You have the leverage to make such free formats a global standard. YouTube > is the world's largest video site, home to nearly every digital video ever > made. If YouTube merely offered a free format as an option, that alone would > bring support from a slew of device makers and applications. > > This ability to *offer* a free format on YouTube, however, is only a tiny > fraction of your real leverage. The real party starts when you begin to > encourage users' browsers to support free formats. There are lots of ways to > do this. Our favorite would be for YouTube to switch from Flash to free > formats and HTML, offering users with obsolete browsers a plugin or a new > browser (free software, of course). Apple has had the mettle to ditch Flash > on the iPhone and the iPad -- albeit for suspect reasons and using abhorrent > methods (DRM) -- and this has pushed web developers to make Flash-free > alternatives of their pages. You could do the same with YouTube, for better > reasons, and it would be a death-blow to Flash's dominance in web video. > > But even some smaller actions would also have an impact. You could interest > users with HD videos in free formats, for example, or aggressively invite > users to upgrade their browsers (instead of upgrading Flash). Steps like > these on YouTube would quickly push browser support for free formats to 50% > and beyond, and they would slowly increase the number of people who never > bother installing Flash. > > If you care about free software and the free web (a movement and medium to > which you owe your success) you must take bold action to replace Flash with > free standards and free formats. Patented video codecs have already done > untold harm to the web and its users, and this will continue until we stop > it. Because patent-encumbered formats were costly to incorporate into > browsers, a bloated, ill-suited piece of proprietary software (Flash) became > the de facto standard for online video. Until we move to free formats, the > threat of patent lawsuits and licensing fees hangs over every software > developer, video creator, hardware maker, web site and corporation -- > including you. > > You can use your purchase of On2 merely as a bargaining chip to achieve your > own private solution to the problem, but that's both a cop-out and a > strategic mistake. Without making VP8 a free format, it's just another video > codec. And what use is another video format with patent-limited browser > support? You owe it to the public and to the medium that made you successful > to solve this problem, for all of us, forever. Organizations like Xiph, > Mozilla, Wikimedia, the FSF, and even On2 itself have recognized the need > for free formats and fought hard to make it happen. Now it's your turn. > We'll know if you do otherwise that your interest is not user freedom on the > web, but Google's dominance. > > We all want you to do the right thing. Free VP8, and use it on YouTube! > > -- > FOSS Nepal mailing list: [email protected] > http://groups.google.com/group/foss-nepal > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > > Mailing List Guidelines: > http://wiki.fossnepal.org/index.php?title=Mailing_List_Guidelines > Community website: http://www.fossnepal.org/
-- Mr. Abhudaya Sagar Kshetri (ASK?) Url: www.sagarkshetri.com.np email:[email protected] -- FOSS Nepal mailing list: [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/foss-nepal To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] Mailing List Guidelines: http://wiki.fossnepal.org/index.php?title=Mailing_List_Guidelines Community website: http://www.fossnepal.org/
