@JaitcH
Yeah, you go right on believing that.
What MPEG LA is doing is posting a giant ad: "Does anyone have any patents pertaining to the On2 / VP8 codec?"
Come March 18th, we'll know the answer one way or the other. If the answer was, "Yes! We have *loads*!" then Google may well be in trouble. WebM could well end up dead in the water. (Patents were invented for a reason. Many don't agree with them, which is fine. We're all entitled to an opinion. But you don't get to pick and choose which laws you obey. If you don't like the laws of your land, *change them*, instead of whining about it on forums.)
If, on the other hand, MPEG LA's request goes unanswered, they've just *proved to the world at large* that there's no reason *not* to use WebM. And that's good new for everyone.
Ultimately, there are two possible outcomes, both of which are good. Either someone's hard work *has* been ripped-off—in which case, I have no quarrel with Google being forced to pay them a crap-ton of money; it's not as if Google are lacking in the green stuff department just now—or they haven't.
The present situation is *bad*. It leaves a huge question mark hanging over the question of whether WebM really is "open" and royalty-free. And that doesn't do WebM, or Google, any favours.
MPEG LA are, perhaps unwittingly, doing the IT world a favour.