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.