It would be a simple matter of programming to have something that
allows upload of encumbered video and audio formats and re-encode them
as Ogg Theora or Ogg Vorbis. It would greatly add to how much stuff we
get, as it would save the user the trouble of re-encoding, or
installing Firefogg, or whatever.
So why don't we do this? Has it been officially assessed as a legal
risk * (and I mean more than people saying it might be on a mailing
list **), has no-one really bothered, or what?
* until the Supreme Court uses in re Bilski to drive the software
patents into the ocean, cross fingers.
** though I fully expect people will now do so anyway
- d.