Microsoft, Google, Netflix, and other tech companies want Flash out

An alliance has been formed to create a video codec especially designed for high-quality video streaming across a wide variety of gadgets to completely oust Adobe Flash. Some of the world’s largest tech companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Cisco, Netflix, Intel and Mozilla are part of this effort.

Adobe Flash has been a staple for high-quality video playback over the years. But now, it’s seen to be an impairment and a security hazard on the Internet. In fact, Adobe has released an advisory earlier this year concerning the issue. Mozilla and Chrome have plugins to forestall Flash by default.

The new format can help the giant web browsers to get rid of Adobe Flash. It will be designed for high-quality video streaming over the Internet on low-powered devices. It will also support copy protection, which is mandatory for Netflix and other similar companies. The alliance is encouraging additional parties to join for the development of the new codec. It is intended to be royalty-free so anyone can use it for their own software. The formed group’s founding members have tried developing their own video codecs but are now joining forces to develop one standard codec which is intended for worldwide consumption.

"Customer expectations for media delivery continue to grow, and fulfilling their expectations requires the concerted energy of the entire ecosystem," stated Alliance Executive Director Gabe Frost, as noted by PC Mag. "The Alliance for Open Media brings together the leading experts in the entire video stack to work together in pursuit of open, royalty free and interoperable solutions for the next generation of video delivery."

According to Mozilla’s blog post , the company is set to release the standard format under the Apache 2.0 license, which is by far the most permissive open source license accessible, as it includes the use of all relevant patents and permits code covered by the license to be used within commercial and proprietary projects.

However, Wired has pointed out that Apple, which has been rumoured to be creating original content, prefers its own QuickTime format to other open source options. Facebook, which has been seen to focus on video content lately, is also absent from the list.