Free Software Foundation: Google should free the web from Flash and H.264

Although Google’s take-over of On2 Technologies has only just been completed, already the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is calling on the company to release On2′s video codec technology as a patent free standard. In an open letter, it asks Google to release the VP8 video codec under a royalty-free licence and to promote that free codec by using it on the YouTube video site. The FSF says to Google that it “can end the web’s dependence on patent-encumbered video formats and proprietary software (Flash)”. The letter then suggests that “to sit on this technology or merely use it as a bargaining chip”, for example, in negotiations over h.264 video licensing, “would be a disservice to the free world”.

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