Microsoft shuns includes/Googles open video codec registry

Microsoft has teamed up with the Google backed WebM project to announce software that Internet Explorer 9 and other Windows applications to create video using WebM, web media format that Google open sourced under a royalty-free license last year.

But it is up to the user to install the software. Internet Explorer 9 is statement with the h.264 codec royalty-loaded, and it will continue to include only h.264. Microsoft remains adamant that open source WebM is missing the required to bundle with IE legal protection.

On Tuesday, The register, reported that Google WebM plug-in for Internet Explorer 9, had entered after notice that the download page provides the software. But Google has now changed the page to indicate that this is not a browser plug-in per se, and in a blog post, the WebM project-aka Google stated that the software in fact WebM with Windows using the Microsoft Media Foundation (MF) API integrates.

This means that the WebM in multiple Windows applications, such as Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer 9. Google and Microsoft the package Microsoft Media Foundation (MF) component invocation for WebM, and according to Google, Microsoft helped build the software.

WebM is based on the VP8 video codec that Google acquired when it bought On2 Technologies last year in a deal valued at $ 124.6 million, and the intended for use with the HTML5 video tag. Google envisions the classification as a royalty-free standard that h.264, the royalty-encumbered codec built into both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Apple Safari for use with HTML5 video replace.

Last year, after Google said WebM, Microsoft revealed that although Internet Explorer 9 would not include WebM, users would have the option of installing the codec on their own. And Microsoft's Internet Explorer general manager Dean Hachamovitch on Wednesday, joined the WebM project in the announcement of the release of the WebM components for Windows.

"Today both HTML5 video in IE9 is the industry-standard h.264 format and the newer WebM format can play," he said in a blog post. "With the release of the WebM Project of WebM components for IE9 (Preview), Windows customers running IE9 WebM play videos in Web pages. IE9 is the only browser to direct that both formats support. "

But, as he said to WebM, you install on your own. Microsoft is backing up WebM, but it will not put the matter in his browser. Redmond, you see, has a certain dislike of open source software.

"As an industry," Hachamovitch went on to say, "we still face many legitimate, unanswered questions about liability, risk and support for WebM, such as: who bears the responsibility and risk for consumers, businesses and developers to the legal system, the problems with intellectual property lost? When and how Google really make room for the Open Web standards Community to take part? What is the plan for the recovery of consistency on devices, Web services, and the PC? "

Google has the Reg told that after a thorough assessment of the situation, it is believed that WEBM is on solid legal ground. But it is not provided specifics about its patent portfolio, let alone a compensation for WebM users. And the MPEG-LA, the organization that licenses h.264, is in the process of putting together a patent pool for WebM, challenging Google claims that the format is royalty-free.

Microsoft is not a mere bystander in this struggle. Together with Apple, it is a part of the existing h.264 patent pool.

At one level, Redmond has a compromise with views to the mountain: it supports the WebM components for Windows. But at the end of his post, Microsofts Hachamovitch took a public swipe at the biggest rival of the company. "The people who build and use the Web deserve practical and consistent support for video instead of ideology," he said, readers suggest a Google blog post with that "ideology" hyperlink.

The post is one part where Google told the world that was the h.264 features of Chrome. That still needs to be done – Chrome 10 still contains the codec-but Google says that h.264 will soon withdraw.

"Companies like Google, the license cost cannot material, but the next big video startup and that in the emerging markets these fees stifle innovation," Google's post read. "But it's not just the license fees; an even more important consideration is the pace of innovation and what incentives development drive. No community development process is perfect, but it is generally the case that the development of community-driven of the core components of the web platform is done with user experience, security, and performance in mind.

"When technology decisions are clouded by conflicting incentives to collect patent royalties, the priorities and the results are less clear and the process tends to take much longer. This is not good for the long term health of Web video. We believe that the web will suffer if there is not a truly open, rapidly developing, community developed alternative and have made significant investments to ensure there is one done. "

Microsoft bristles at such talk. The company believes that its approach is the more "open" of the two. "Working through [legal] questions is part of the Web forward," Hachamovitch said at the end of his post. "The Open Web is a product of consensus and open dialog box. This post is part of the dialog window to continue the Web. "

Well, Microsoft claims at least believe that its approach to the opener of the two. Its position has less to do with openness and do more with lawyers. ®

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