[Foundation-l] Freedom, standards, and file formats

[Tim Starling]

Michael Snow wrote:
> In dealing with the limited adoption of certain free formats, some 
> people have advocated a more evangelistic approach, if you will. Given 
> the reach of Wikipedia in particular, it's suggested that our policy 
> could push wider adoption of these formats. That may be, but the 
> question is, how much is that push worth? What are the prospects for 
> making those formats readable in the average reader's environment, and 
> encouraging wider use as a standard? Does an uncompromising approach 
> result in significant progress, or would we simply be marginalizing the 
> impact of our work? And is it worth the "sacrifice" of the many people 
> who would miss out on some of the knowledge we're sharing, because the 
> free format isn't accessible to them? (That's also partly a problem of 
> disseminating knowledge, of course.) If we adopt a compromise position 
> as described earlier, how much do we lose in terms of promoting the 
> freer formats?

My understanding, from a previous mailing list discussion, was that we can
and hopefully will support Flash video. As long as the encoder license
fees are reasonable in proportion to our other operational costs, adding
proprietary video formats alongside free ones can only increase the
dissemination of knowledge and assist in our educational mission.

-- Tim Starling