2010-01-22

Vimeo experiments with h.264/HTML5 too, kicking free minded users asses

Another shame.
After Youtube.com, Vimeo.com comes on my blacklist. According to Heise-News (German), Vimeo is experimenting with the use of h.264/HTML5 leaving all Firefox users in the rain, and kicking free minded users in the stomach. Firefox made the right step, and supports HTML% with Ogg Theora only. I can only hope, Firefox stands against the pressure now, keeping the Ogg Theora only policy, and puts some pressure to the patent-crap h.264 on their own.
That what I wrote to the people at Vimeo:
Hello,
I just heard the news that you are going to set on h.264/HTML5 instead of the standard OGG Theora/HTML5.
I can not believe that you count on an unfree and patented codec, when there is the big chance for saving money for yourself, free the web from patents, and giving the user a good experience. This infuriates me, and surely will keep me from using your service as an alternative to YouTube.
This is the darkest hour of your platform, and even if Firefox will support h.264/HTML5 ever (which is not at this time), I would never go to a video portal which decides against free formats and turns big chances for the industry down. Ogg Theora is the right way! Get rid of Flash and using h.264 is from bad to worse.

If you want to encourage Vimeo to stop using h.264 and choose Ogg Theora/HTML5, the standard, please write them at info@vimeo.com.