MPEG-LA Considering Patent Pool For VP8/WebM

An anonymous reader writes "Well, that didn't take long. Larry Horn, CEO of MPEG-LA, the consortium that controls the AVC/H.264 video standard, says the group is looking at creating a patent pool license for VP8 and WebM, Google's new open source, royalty-free HTML5 video format... So much for a Web video standard unencumbered by patent issues." We talked about VP8/WebM a couple of days ago when Google open sourced it. Reader Stoobalou points out another late-night email from Steve Jobs, who was asked to comment on VP8 vs. H.264. Jobs laconically sent a pointer to the technical analysis we linked before, where the poster says "VP8 copies way too much from H.264 for anyone sane to be comfortable with it, no matter whose word is behind the claim of being patent-free."

Re:Patent violations

[Daniel Phillips]

That's why it might make more sense to just use H.264 and save yourself from future problems.

"Nice little codec ya gotcherself there... shame if something should... happen to it."

An armed society is a polite society?

[Rogerborg]

This is just like all those anti-gun politicians who won't go anywhere without their armed bodyguards. Hey, they don't believe in carrying guns personally, but you know, there are bad people out there...

Re:Patent violations

[Compaqt]

After the first billion or so, there's a limit to how much better of a lawyer you can buy.

Re:So when does MPGE4 AVC/H.264 expire?

[Hal_Porter]

MP3Pro and HE-AAC have yet to make a dent. AC-3 has virtually no presence outside of audio accompanying video.

Yo! All the cool, cutting edge media savvy kids are switching from MP3Pro to MP3Pro Extreme To the Max Radical II. Ring the bell, suckah. Schools in!