They fought h.264 because it would prevent open source browsers from competing because the browser maker would have to pay for a license (or it might have evolved in that direction). If the codec is distributed as javascript (or some other patent-free open format), then any open source browser that implements a fast javascript engine can run it. The answer to 'who pays?' gets moved from the browser maker to the video distributor (where in all fairness it belongs).
Comments
They fought h.264 because it would prevent open source browsers from competing because the browser maker would have to pay for a license (or it might have evolved in that direction). If the codec is distributed as javascript (or some other patent-free open format), then any open source browser that implements a fast javascript engine can run it. The answer to 'who pays?' gets moved from the browser maker to the video distributor (where in all fairness it belongs).