H.264 Is Now Free, Sort Of

By | August 27, 2010 | 6 Comments

H.264 Is Now Free, Sort OfMPEG-LA, the group behind H.264 codec licensing declared Internet Broadcast AVC free from royalties; as long as web site that provides video streaming service is free as well. Or put in other words: YouTube won’t have to pay for it

Originally, LLC was planning to charge companies that rely on H.264, starting from 2016.

Thanks to competition, such as: Google’s WebM video format, this is no longer the case, as long as end users are not paying for service.

Thanks to webtax for the news tip.
Source: Electronista


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Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • Gonçalo

    I the problem was never the publisher having to pay. Will this enable Firefox and Opera to supply the decoder without having to pay? The browsers are free, do the same logic should apply.

  • Tiago Sá

    I was going to point out that Firefox can NEVER include non-open source technology, but then I changed my mind.

    • http://Operaner.net Andylee

      can somebody tell me what insider this “I as going to….[...]….but then I changed my mind.” is?
      Did I miss some famous politician or comedian or webcomic or something?

      • Tiago Sá

        Nothing. I just do this so my posts don’t get deleted. If you say anything at all, there’s always the risk that you’ll get censored in these big shot sites, you know?
         
        Playing it safe here.
         
        » … is what I was going to say, in reply to Andylee. But then I changed my mind and will reply this: «Yes.»

      • Ichan

        Its the ‘I’ revolution.
         
        Where have you been!?

  • Foo

    According to Mike Shaver in his “Free as in Smokescreen” post:

    You still have to pay for a license for H.264 if you want to make things that create it, consume it, or your business model for distributing it is direct rather than indirect.
    [····]
    This is similar to Nikon announcing that they will not charge you if you put your pictures up on Flickr, or HP promising that they will never charge you additionally if you photocopy something that you printed on a LaserJet.

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