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

[Samuel Klein]

Yes.  The current discussion has confused people about the things that are
not very contentious:
* Ingesting and converting out of more formats is good: we should start
ingesting MP4 and converting on the fly.  There are no major legal risks to
our doing so.
* We have a tiny video community; even so we are one of the largest
collection of WebM videos on the web.  We should try to increase the global
population of WebM videos so that there is more incentive for remixers and
videographers to start playing with and using compatible tools.
* We should increase our support for toolchains for WebM and similar
unencumbered formats: by helping the major clients implement support.

If we clarify those things, a new RFC that focuses on implementing MP4
autoconversion would have more support.  It would be easier & faster if the
RFC creators chose to close discussion for now while reframing & revising
the focus of discussion.

SJ


On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 11:18 PM, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:

> David Gerard wrote:
> >Given Commons' attitude on even incredibly unlikely copyright risks
> >... it's just ridiculous to assume such a provision on a format would
> >be allowed to pass.
> >
> >I see at least one person has deemed it a snowball-pass after just a
> >few hours. I find this ... unlikely.
>
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Requests_for_comment/MP4_Video
>
> Looking at the discussion, there are currently approximately 105 users
> under general support, 167 users under general oppose, and 34 users under
> partial support (contributions only). The few other sections have a
> negligible amount of activity.
>
> There's already discussion on the talk page about how to close what will
> inevitably be a very long and contentious discussion. If we avoid treating
> this RFC as a vote, there's possibly hope for a reasonable compromise.
>
> MZMcBride
>
>
>
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-- 
Samuel Klein          @metasj           w:user:sj          +1 617 529 4266