[nitrogen]

They don't patent the general process of compressing video and audio.

I get the impression from reading about Daala, VP8/VP9, and x264 that there are fundamental building blocks that are patented and used in threats. We have open source researchers who are just as willing to make high quality codecs as the MPEGLA members, but their time is wasted by fear of lawsuits and working around obvious patents.

I'd suggest that anything that becomes an international standard should have FRAND licensing for all patents, enforced by treaty.