David Gerard wrote:
On 20 March 2012 01:24, Brion Vibber brion@pobox.com wrote:
In theory we can produce a configuration with TimedMediaHandler to produce both H.264 and Theora/WebM transcodes, bringing Commons media to life for mobile users and Apple and Microsoft browser users. What do we think about this? What are the pros and cons?
No. Just because Mozilla has decided to do the wrong thing for commercial reasons does not somehow compel us to. It's only pressure from users that will get the companies to use unlocked formats.
I agree with David here, though I'd encourage all parties to think about the issue broadly and in creative ways.
For example, the Wikimedia Foundation has a substantial amount of capital and could theoretically generate more for a specific purpose like this. Would buying the rights to codecs like these be feasible? What kind of cost are we talking about? Are there other solutions that could be considered that don't compromise Wikimedia's values?
I think we can all agree that Ogg sucks. Are there ways to make it suck less?
MZMcBride