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MPEG LA announced today that websites streaming free H.264 video will be able to do so royalty free forever:
MPEG LA is announcing today that it will continue to offer a royalty-free license for the H.264 video codec for video sites that offer free video streams to consumers “during the entire life of this (l)icense.” In other words: Web sites like YouTube will be free to use H.264 for its streams without having to fear they’re eventually going to have to pay massive royalties to MPEG LA.This still doesn't solve all the worries, but it's certainly a nice step and removes the most wild speculation from the equation (e.g. "I won't be able to put video I shot with my h.264 camera onto my personal website and show it to my friends without paying MPEG LA!")
The company, which has assembled a patent pool for H.264 patents, had previously said that it would offer H.264 streaming for free until 2016. That announcement was met with skepticism, with Mozilla CEO John Lilly at the time tweeting that this was “like 5 more years of free to lock you in 4ever.”