As usual, Apple pushes NIH, instead of supporting DASH which is the common standard. And they also tried to sabotage adoption of the later by refusing to support MSE on the client side that's needed for handling DASH.
I mean... HLS predates DASH. It would've been hard for them to support a common standard which didn't even exist at the time. Initial release of HLS was in 2009[0], work started on DASH in 2010[1].
I'd also disagree with the characterization of DASH as "the commmon standard" - it's certainly a legitimate standard, but I feel like support for HLS is more ubiquitous than support for DASH (please correct me if I'm wrong).
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Live_Streaming
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Adaptive_Streaming_ove...
I think you have the NIH cause-effect the wrong way around.
Yes, and v7 of the protocol is documented here: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8216
> This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes.
IETF standard should be free as far as I know. So the fact that it's not is already suspicious.
Knowing Apple, they probably patented it to the brink. So they released it royalty free? And when exactly?
Note the word 'and'. That link wasn't to explain that it's free.
Also "is not an IETF standard" is a pretty low bar for suspicion!
Citation needed :)
From https://www.mpegla.com/programs/dash/
> The royalty for DASH Clients, which is now payable from January 1, 2017 forward, remains US $0.05 per unit after the first 100,000 units each year.
Apple however are the owners of HLS, and unlike some random patent trolls, if they are insisting on its adoption, they have to make sure their patents on it are royalty free. Not that it will protect anyone from further patent tolls attacks from the likes of MPEG-LA, but that's a requirement.
Has MPEG made any statement about the MPEG-LA patent pool?
I'm not sure what that means. Either they released it royalty free or not. Since there is no public statement about it, there is no reason to assume it's free.
> Has MPEG made any statement about the MPEG-LA patent pool?
I don't think anyone cares to make statements about patent trolls. The only effective way to deal with them is to bust their claims in court, which not many want to do.
But the problem is the reverse here. Apple have patents on HLS itself which are not free, so it's not suitable for general adoption.