Law & Disorder

The US Department of Justice has reportedly launched an investigation into the MPEG Licensing Association (MPEG LA) to see whether the organization is trying to stifle competition from Google. The DoJ wouldn't comment publicly on the alleged investigation, but "people familiar with the matter" told the Wall Street Journal that the probe had already started, adding that the California Attorney General's office was also looking into MPEG LA's actions.

MPEG LA is essentially a one-stop licensing shop for MPEG video codec standards. Last year, MPEG LA made waves when it announced a permanent moratorium on charging royalties for AVC/H.264 encoded video—a move that many believed was an effort to prevent Google's new WebM standard, built with technology it gained from acquiring On2 last year, from gaining any serious traction.

MPEG LA also suggested that the VP8 codec used by WebM was likely covered by patents held by its member companies, and last month, the group put out a call for patents essential to the VP8 algorithm with the intent of pooling them together and then licensing them out as a single bundle. The call was seen as an act of aggression against Google, as Google currently licenses WebM and V8 without payment of any royalties or any restrictions on usage.

If MPEG LA can form a pool of critical patents, then WebM implementors will suddenly find themselves deciding whether to drop WebM support, pay up, or risk fighting a patent infringement lawsuit. None of those prospects are particularly appealing—even paying up would be disadvantageous, since H.264 is seen by many as offering better quality. If you're going to shell out some cash, you may as well pay for the superior tech, which would leave WebM dead in the water.

That's the apparent reason behind the new DoJ investigation. Investigators are looking into whether MPEG LA or its member companies (which include Apple and Microsoft) are making an active effort to cripple adoption of WebM and V8, but MPEG LA CEO Larry Horn insists that's not the case. He told the Journal that the group was merely a "convenience store" for video patents and that it has no interest in which one(s) come out on top. That may be the official company line, but it certainly seems as if Horn indeed has some interest in getting under the competition's skin. "I can tell you: VP8 is not patent-free," Horn warned.