It's official: FSF announced its support for the WebM video format

They took their time but the announcement is already formal: the Free Software Foundation, which historically promotes the development and use of free software in all areas of computing, decided to formally support the development and dissemination of the WebM video format, especially as a possible candidate to become the standard HTML5 video format. The communiqué was published in the fsf-digest vol. 56, issue 2.

"Google has been working to bring together a broad coalition of organizations to support WebM and try to make it the video codec of choice for HTML5," explained Brett Smith, licensing expert at the Free Software Foundation. “We want the world to know that we also support WebM: its free license, 'friendly' to developers who want to know how it works and even improve the codec, is a good choice to help ensure that the Web delivers on its promise to deliver a free alternative for the world to communicate. "

FSF Executive Director Peter Brown said: “We applaud Google's efforts, not only for launching WebM as free software, but also for promoting the reasons that discourage the use of H.264. Now is the time to act. Through a joint community effort in support of WebM, we will be able to uphold the vision of the Web as free and unfettered. "

Google released the WebM video codec in May 2010. Unlike its competitor H.264, developers that support WebM in their software do not adhere to restrictive licenses, which in addition to requiring the payment of royalties limit the way in which the developers apply licenses to their own software.