Will the world's largest video site switch over to open media formats ?

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With Google's acquisition of ON2 approved by ON2 stakeholders, there is an opportunity for the owner of the largest video website YouTube to unencumber the entire collection of patented codecs.

Codecs are a commodity and with HTML5 this is the right time to push for the standard video format on the web to be an open one. This is in keeping with the spirit of the web and provides the springboard (along with other innovations like ubiquitous broadband connectivity and media-rich apps & services) for the web to expand into the multimedia dimension.

The FSF is quick to realize this and has issued an open letter to google asking them to free VP8 and make it default format on Youtube.

I am very interested to see Google's reaction to this. I hope for the best ! Good luck, fsf ! Good luck, people !

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