It’s really quite simple.

  • the majority of browsers can never support h.264, because the licensing model forbids prohibits open-source distribution
  • everyone can support WebM, in fact the creators actively encourage it

…so tell me again who’s being a jerk for not implementing support for which format?1

If you don’t like H.264’s licencing terms, you can take it or leave it. Google used to take it, and now they’re leaving it. It’s their choice2, and their money.

  1. Apple’s not a jerk yet, as WebM support may well be coming to safari and iOS in a timely manner. But we’ll see. ↩

  2. Of course, since chromium is itself open source, you could distribute your own chromium-with-h264. Except, oh yeah, the owners of h.264 would sue you. ↩