FSF wants Google to kill Flash

THE FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION (FSF) has called upon Google to use its considerable might to force a new standard for online video, or at least encourage one to win out.

In an open letter to Google, the FSF said that since acquiring video compression On2 Technology it was in a good position to drive widespread if not universal adoption of free open source video technology.

Google only acquired the firm last week. "We're excited to welcome the On2 team to Google and to continue to enhance the video experience for users on the web," said Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at Google. "Through rapid innovation in browsers and web standards, the Internet is becoming the leading platform for development. We believe On2's engineering talent and technology will be an incredible asset for us as we work to improve this platform." It has not yet said how it will use this video technology, but the FSF has its own ideas.

There is one particular kind of video that the FSF would like to see sent into the dustbin of history, and it was not shy about mentioning it. In the letter the group says, "With your purchase of On2, you now own both the world's largest video site (Youtube) and all the patents behind a new high performance video codec - VP8. Just think what you can achieve by releasing the VP8 codec under an irrevocable royalty-free license and pushing it out to users on YouTube? You can end the web's dependence on patent-encumbered video formats and proprietary software (Flash)."

It warns Google that unless it does make the use of the VP8 codec an integral part of Youtube it will waste the technology, doing it and web users a disservice. "To sit on this technology or merely use it as a bargaining chip would be a disservice to the free world, while bringing at best limited short-term benefits to your company. To free VP8 without recommending it to Youtube users would be a wasted opportunity and damaging to free software browsers like Firefox. We all want you to do the right thing. Free VP8, and use it on YouTube!"

Unlike Apple, which the group thinks had some dubious reasons for encouraging developers to bypass Flash, Google could make a real difference, with very little action, according to the FSF.

"The real party starts when you begin to encourage users' browsers to support free formats. There are lots of ways to do this. Our favorite would be for Youtube to switch from Flash to free formats and HTML, offering users with obsolete browsers a plugin or a new browser (free software, of course). Apple has had the mettle to ditch Flash on the Iphone and the Ipad -- albeit for suspect reasons and using abhorrent methods (DRM) -- and this has pushed web developers to make Flash-free alternatives of their pages. You could do the same with Youtube, for better reasons, and it would be a death-blow to Flash's dominance in web video."

Chillingly, it adds the warning, "We'll know if you do otherwise that your interest is not user freedom on the web, but Google's dominance."

In our mind, anything that is not encumbered by proprietary patents or subject to objectionable licensing restrictions will be welcome. Even if it does come from Google. µ