Mike Shaver wrote in HTML5 video and codecs:

We want to make sure that the Web experience is good for all users, present and future. I want to make sure that when a child in India or Brazil or Kenya discovers the internet, there isn’t a big piece of it (video) that they can’t afford to participate in. I want to make sure that there are no toll-booth barriers to entry for someone building a whole new browser, or bringing a browser to a whole new device or OS, or making and using tools for creating standard web content. And I want that not only altruistically, but also because I want the crazy awesome video (animation, peer-to-peer, security, etc.) ideas that will come from having more people, with more perspectives, fully participating in the internet.

Using open formats that aren’t patent-encumbered is the only way to keep the web open in the past, present and future. Playing video on the web should work now and in the future. It shouldn’t be the case that an organization will at some point charge money for people showing videos on the web. For example, when the current license expires at the end of 2010. That would be the GIF problem all over again. Why don’t we do this the right way from the start.