Internet search services provider, Google, Inc., US, has announced the WebM Community Cross-License (CCL) initiative. The initiative will seek to bring together companies that are willing to share any patents relevant to the WebM video format, and in particular the VP8 video compression algorithm.
Besides Google, Cisco Systems, Mozilla, MIPS Technologies, AMD, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Logitech, Matroska, Opera and the Xiph.org Foundation will be the founding members of the consortium. By joining the CCL, these orgaisations agree to license patents they may have and are essential to WebM technologies to other members of the CCL.
Mozilla, Opera, Xiph.Org, Matroska, Google and over 40 other partners launched the WebM Project in May 2010 with the goal of developing a world-class, open source media format for the web. The open development model has reportedly led to rapid quality improvements in WebM. The format is now supported in HTML5-capable browsers including Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Internet Explorer. Leading silicon vendors are adding WebM support to their chipsets, and some hardware implementations are already on the market.
According to media reports, the exact terms of the cross-license agreement have not been decided. The objective is to create an agreement that will extend Google's existing VP8 patent grants to all community members. Each of the community members will offer a royalty-free license to use their patents, subject to the condition that community members not sue each other. If any community member sues any other for any patent related to WebM then the suing community member will lose its rights to use any of the other WebM Patents.
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