With just a few notable exceptions, some of the biggest names in tech such as Cisco, Amazon, Intel, Google, Mozilla, Microsoft and Netflix are teaming up to create a new online video format.
The companies have joined together to create a new open source video format as the Alliance for Open Media. The organization includes not only all three major web browser makers, but also some of the biggest players in online video. For instance, Cisco makes WebEx, one of the world's most popular software tools for business teleconferencing. Apple develops its own Safari web browser but the company is absent from the group, as well as the social media company Facebook.
The new open source online video format has yet to be named. But what it seems certain for now is the fact that the video format could make it easier for web giants to move away from Adobe Flash, which has endured until now despite recent calls for its death. The new video format will be designed specifically for delivering online streaming video with the aim of making it suitable even for low-performance devices. Netflix also ensured that the new standard will also support copy protection.
According to reports, the new online video format will be royalty free. Any company will be able to build software for creating or converting video in the format without having to pay any fee. According to a blog post from Mozilla, the companies plan to release the standard under the Apache License 2.0. This standard provides perhaps the most permissive available open source license, since it allows code covered by the license to be used within proprietary and commercial projects and includes specifically the use of all relevant patents.
The new alliance makes a good example of how open source organizations are taking on the role once under control of standards bodies. According to Jim Zemlin, the director of the Linux Foundation, as he declared in a statement made last year, providing a standards document to a light bulb manufacturer is not going to help it make cheaper and better bulbs, but if you give them the open source code that certainly can help.
