[Wikimedia-l] RfC: Should we support MP4 Video on our sites?

[David Gerard]

On 16 January 2014 15:36, Andrew Lih <andrew.lih at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 9:14 AM, Todd Allen <toddmallen at gmail.com> wrote:

>> This proposal asks to move to a "free as in beer" model, where content will
>> be free to view, but not necessarily to reuse (and with the opaque license,
>> it may not even be possible to tell). We could choose to make that change,
>> but it is a major change to the founding principles of what we do.  As such
>> it should be discussed directly and across all projects as such a major
>> change, and not backdoored through a vote that is on its surface a question
>> about format support.

> As much as I hate how MPEG-LA and MPEG-4 creates a non-free climate for our
> video, it's unfair to use "backdoor" to characterize intent of either
> community members or WMF employees in this area.


I think it's quite fair to note, loudly and often, that *functionally*
it creates a backdoor for nonfree content.

This is a major, major change, being posited as allowing a format.

Furthermore, this has been discussed before, and the proponents *are
fully aware* that it is a major, major change that they are positing
as allowing a format.

So claiming that it's "assuming bad faith" to notice this and say so
comes across as disingenuous.


- d.