Some of the biggest names in the tech industry, namely Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Amazon, Cisco, Intel and Netflix, are joining together to change how videos work over the Internet.
The companies formed the Alliance for Open Media, which will look to develop a new open source format for videos. Included in the companies are three of the top Internet browser makers in Google, Microsoft and Mozilla, some of the biggest names that work with online videos in Amazon and Netflix, and major technology providers in Intel and Cisco. Cisco, notably, created WebEx, which is one of the most popular tools for holding teleconferences for businesses worldwide.
However, as tech news website Wired pointed out, Apple, which develops its own Internet browser in Safari, and Facebook, a growing source for online videos, are not among the companies that formed the alliance.
Mozilla announced the formation of the alliance through a post on its official blog, where the company stated that the members of the Alliance for Open Media joined forces to be able to share technology and to be able to carry out the necessary patent analysis for the development of a next-generation, royalty-free codec for videos.
Being royalty-free, companies will be allowed to create software for recording and converting other videos into the new format without having to pay any fees.
The new format is not yet named, but it will make it simpler for Internet giants to eliminate their dependence on Adobe Flash for online videos. The format will be specifically designed to deliver streaming online videos, with the aim to make the videos suitable for low-powered devices.
The new format will also supposedly feature copy protection support, which will greatly benefit companies such as Netflix.
Mozilla said that the plan would be to release the standard under Apache License 2.0, which is perhaps the most permissive among all the open source licenses currently available, as the license includes the usage of all relevant patents and also allows the code that is covered to be used for proprietary and commercial projects.
"Customer expectations for media delivery continue to grow, and fulfilling their expectations requires the concerted energy of the entire ecosystem," said Gabe Frost, the executive director for the alliance.
