Microsoft, Google, Amazon, others, aim for royalty-free video codecs (Ars Technica)

Ars Technica reportsthat Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, Cisco, Intel, Netflix, and Amazon havelaunched a new consortium, the Alliance for Open Media. "TheAlliance for Open Media would put an end to this problem [of patent licenses and royalties]. The group's first aim is to produce a video codec that's a meaningful improvement on HEVC. Many of the members already have their own work on next-generation codecs; Cisco has Thor, Mozilla has been working on Daala, and Google on VP9 and VP10. Daala and Thor are both also under consideration by the IETF's netvc working group, which is similarly trying to assemble a royalty-free video codec."