I am confused as to why more people aren't asking this. If On2 were licensing any patents (for example, from one or more of the MPEGLA partners) in order to make VP8 possible, it's not important that Google has open sourced it unless they also somehow provide a free license to all the patents involved.
I don't know enough about the industry to be able to predict whether On2 could have a technology in VP8 that they, and only they, have patents on. In that case, the ball is in Google's court. Otherwise, whoever owns the patents that On2 was licensing (or infringing?) still as a right to get royalties, right? Experts?
I don't know enough about the industry to be able to predict whether On2 could have a technology in VP8 that they, and only they, have patents on. In that case, the ball is in Google's court. Otherwise, whoever owns the patents that On2 was licensing (or infringing?) still as a right to get royalties, right? Experts?