H.264 is not a good thing...

Steve Jobs has been making his opinion on flash quite well known. Adobe's Shantanu Narayen has his own response to the whole situation. I couldn't find an official transcript of that. Both sides have good arguments, and there are pros and cons to both strategies. Apple is strongly pushing for H.264 video with HTML5 to replace one common use of Flash. However, I want to clear one thing up:

H.264 is NOT a good thing. It's a mess of patents that MPEG-LA could enforce at any time in the future. Does anyone remember GIF? While the LZW compression was patented, it was not enforced and Unisys said they wouldn't enforce it for websites, etc. Only for commercial software. Then, in 1999, with GIF firmly entrenched, Unisys started asking websites using GIFs made with open software for $5000. Seriously. A major campaign known as Burn All GIFs helped to slowly get the GIF format out of common use. However, it came at a cost to many larger developers, software companies, and ultimately end users. GIF couldn't disappear overnight. In fact, you still see some GIF around today, though it's no longer an issue as Unisys' patents have expired. However, patents are still being seriously abused today and I even found a book written by lawyers encouraging their abuse - Patenting Art & Entertainment: New Strategies for Protecting Creative Ideas . "Patenting Art & Entertainment"?!?!?!?!?! Patent law is intended to cover inventions... let's have some history here, after all...

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. H.264 is the new GIF, and MPEG-LA the new Unisys. Enforcement could come at any moment in a sweeping blow to helpless web designers, etc firmly entrenched in using it. The beneficiaries? Apple, Microsoft, and especially MPEG-LA. Most digital video cameras already include a statement required by MPEG-LA that they can only be used for "personal use and non-commercial" purposes. Including professional digital video cameras. While MPEG-LA isn't strictly enforcing this... today, what does tomorrow hold? Let's not forget GIF. Of course, Apple and Microsoft have good relationships with MPEG-LA and no need to fear... it could only help knock out free, open, truly innovating products.

There are alternatives. Ogg Theora exists. Google's On2 VP8 is coming soon. Like them or not, Google's "don't be evil" motto really has been true in many areas, and On2 VP8 has a lot of potential. However, without pressuring Apple and Microsoft to support these codecs, they can never be used on the web. Just like we had to pressure them to support PNG back in the day, the time has come again to push for industry support for open standards...

- Mark