I think this is a step in the right direction, but it won't have anywhere near the potential effect of another Google enterprise, YouTube. Imagine this scenario...Google finishes transcoding all of it's YouTube videos to WebM and it becomes default. Unfortunately, it won't work for people using internet explorer or safari. For people using a pre-html5 web browser version, they would be told to upgrade or to use Firefox or Chrome to view the videos. When someone using internet explorer 9 or later or safari tries to use YouTube, it informs them that they are missing something that would enable them to view the video, much the same thing that would happen today if people were missing flash when they tried to use YouTube today. When people go to install the missing components, open codecs and/or a browser plugin are installed to make the browser WebM capable. If this were to happen, almost every browser would end up supporting open video.
I've been hearing concerns from conservatives and libertarians that the government will use net neutrality or similar to eventually control website content, possibly making it harder for critics of government to express themselves or mobilize. The concern is that it would be abused in a way similar to the way Canadian officials have abused hate speech laws. Fining people and what not for criticizing government policy or saying things that are contrary to what the officials believe or want said. Is this kind of thing a possible outcome from the FCC's new rules?
I think this is a step in the right direction, but it won't have anywhere near the potential effect of another Google enterprise, YouTube. Imagine this scenario...Google finishes transcoding all of it's YouTube videos to WebM and it becomes default. Unfortunately, it won't work for people using internet explorer or safari. For people using a pre-html5 web browser version, they would be told to upgrade or to use Firefox or Chrome to view the videos. When someone using internet explorer 9 or later or safari tries to use YouTube, it informs them that they are missing something that would enable them to view the video, much the same thing that would happen today if people were missing flash when they tried to use YouTube today. When people go to install the missing components, open codecs and/or a browser plugin are installed to make the browser WebM capable. If this were to happen, almost every browser would end up supporting open video.