An anonymous reader writes: With YouTube, Google has officially started supporting HTML5 video. However the video codec that they choosed to use is the proprietary H.264 instead of the open source Theora. Because it is used by Google, everyone could start using it, effectively making it the standard. For internet broadcast, H.264 is currently free. However there is a lot of uncertainty over its licensing as the free broadcast license is valid only till the end of 2010. If MPEG-LA, the patent holder of H.264 codec, decides to charge licensing fee, it could create a barrier for web developers and other new entrys in the web bussiness.