Wow I wonder if such an uproar existed with divx and xvid. No one screams about having to download codecs for their favorite video player, but make them download a new audio codec and your are evil.....

This post has been edited by dafederal : 01 September 2006 - 07:57 AM

divx and xvid are evil too. And you're not going to see me downloading RealPlayer or sharing any videos that aren't encoded in a legitimate standard (mp4, H.264, etc.)

So what constitutes a "legitimate standard" to you? You're happily using HTTP - that wasn't created by an official standards body. You're also apparently happily using HTML - that recommendation (the W3C calls their standards "recommendations") is managed by the W3C, who aren't blessed with any official standards setting status - it just so happens that people tend to follow what they say. On the other hand, you call XviD/DivX evil, whilst they are based on the MPEG4 standard, which is in fact an ISO standard.

Or do you mean something else by "legitimate standard"?

This has gotten so off topic and grave-dug, as much as I'd love to explain why certain formats are evil and why others are not, I really have to lock this.