14 DAY TRIAL // Google has now corrected one of the biggest issues with the license of the much-talked-about WebM project. Specifically, the VP8 codec, part of WebM, was released under a new open-source license, specifically crafted by Google for the codec. There were reasons for this choice, but it meant that the license wasn’t really ‘open-source,’ since it had not been approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). Now, Google has backtracked on its initial decision and released VP8 under a fairly standard BSD license, earning the praise of the OSI.
“You'll see on the WebM license page and in our source code repositories that we've made a small change to our open source license. There were a couple of issues that popped up after we released WebM at Google I/O a couple weeks ago, specifically around how the patent clause was written,” Chris DiBona, the Open Source Programs manager at Google, wrote in a post on the WebM blog.
Originally, the license was based mostly on BSD, but borrowed from the 2nd Apache License as well as from GPLv3. Specifically, if a licensee sued Google over patent issues, it terminated the patent grant, something common to existing OS licenses, but it also terminated any right of using the code. This last part made it incompatible with GPLv2 or GPLv3 and effectively meant that Google had created a new OS license. Since this license had not been sent for review by the OSI, it could not be considered a true open-source license.
OSI asked for a submission for approval from Google, but it got something even better, it got Google to use a standard BSD license. The patent grant is now completely separated from the license. This approach is the best of both worlds. It means that, because it uses a standard OS license, it can be incorporated into existing open-source projects with ease. Since the license is compatible with GPL, it can also be integrated in the GNU environment and in GNU/Linux. At the same time, it also provides a solid patent protection, which is especially important in the business environment.
"I am pleased to say that the project is now fully open source, with the copyright licensed under the BSD licence. Many thanks to Google for addressing the concerns that I and many other members of the community expressed over the licence under which the project was initially announced,” Simon Phipps, a board member with the OSI which had pointed out the issues with the original license, said. “This is a particularly good resolution as it offers the WebM source under the most liberal possible open source licence, allowing re-use in almost any context, while solving the one down-side of the BSD licence - the lack of a patent grant.”
Unfortunately, things aren’t clear cut yet. While the license issue has been solved and WebM now enjoys the support of the majority of the tech world, there is still the issue of the MPEG LA, the organization that governs H.264 licensing. The group has said it is considering gathering a patent pool for VP8, claiming the codec may be covered by patents belonging to companies associated with MPEG LA. If the organization would manage to do so, it would mean that V8 would no longer be royalty-free.