depending on an oss solution that they don't control or can't validate that IP has been used in the code without permission has nothing to do with them caring or not caring about the end users or devs. It has to do with not making bad decisions and putting the company in a place where they could be sued.

We all love to assume its cause they are all big businesses out trying to screw the consumer, but its just not that simple. Microsoft, Google, Apple, are all large companies with a lot of money. I deal with this issue everyday at Boeing. As developers we would LOVE to use more open source, however we can't.

Let me give you an easy scenario. We use an OSS lib and fully abide by the license thinking we are safe. What we can't control is who contributes to the project. If a random developer adds code to the project that he doesn't own that is a huge problem. There is no one checking to make sure that contributors are not violating others intellectual property. What happens next is the original author finds out, and sees $$$. They don't go after the developers that copied code, they go after the large company and sue. There are always exceptions to the rule, but companies are not going to put themselves (and shareholders investments) at risk just because we all think that it will be convenient to have the video tag in html5.