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

[Samuel Klein]

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


I'm not sure this is correct.

There are two different implementations possible.
* Accept MP4 and support a transcoding toolchain, but only show readers and
editors patent-unencumbered* formats.
I think this is an excellent idea, and something we should implement.

* Accept MP4 and support transcoding as above, show readers and editors
patent-unencumbered formats by default, and allow them to download the
original file if they wish.  This would allow people using toolchains that
only support MP4 to continue to edit one another's work without themselves
having to implement a transcoding toolchain on the client side. Again, the
default presentation for anyone who doesn't know what they are doing would
be unencumbered, but we would be more extensively providing a server-side
transcoding toolchain for users who do not or cannot [depending on whether
they have full control over the hardware they use].

Lionel writes:
> Most of the time it is a bad idea to upload a video without any form of
editing. Most of the time you need to
> remove at least the begining and the end of a video file.

Just because that video is incomplete doesn't mean it is a bad idea to
share.  As with text, we should be able to upload drafts and work on them
online.  This sort of basic editing is something we should support online
post-upload.  Forcing uploaders to have an offline editing toolchain in
order to be able to share material is unnecessary; the uploader doesn't
have to be the one to refine the result.

Sam.