Your hair-splitting over how many questions were actually asked draws the discussion away from some good questions.
Second, virtually all of these questions take as an axiom that H.264 is IP-encumbered and WebM/VP8 isn't. Technical analyses (by people who have actually implemented H.264 and are familiar with the patents) suggests that that simply isn't the case
Possible, but if the issue came down to 'an h264 developer with the technical chops' vs 'The due dilligence exercised by Google when acquiring WebM for millions and millions', I think I would lean slightly towards the latter.
Second, virtually all of these questions take as an axiom that H.264 is IP-encumbered and WebM/VP8 isn't. Technical analyses (by people who have actually implemented H.264 and are familiar with the patents) suggests that that simply isn't the case
Possible, but if the issue came down to 'an h264 developer with the technical chops' vs 'The due dilligence exercised by Google when acquiring WebM for millions and millions', I think I would lean slightly towards the latter.