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Comment by cesarb | Hacker News Reader

> Compare the spec lengths: 681 pages for https://aomediacodec.github.io/av1-spec/av1-spec.pdf, 101 for https://www.iso.org/standard/77977.html.

And here we immediately see one important difference between them: the first link is to a 681-page PDF, which opens immediately in my browser. The second link is to a place where one can buy access to what it says is a 101-page PDF, after paying more money than it would cost to buy a basic laptop.

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> after paying more money than it would cost to buy a basic laptop

No need to be imprecise, unless you are trying to push some agenda. The cost is CHF 198, which is around USD 195.

Yeah, a lot of things cost more than a basic laptop. Last I checked, you can get Chromebooks on the order of $20 or so per machine. That metric isn't useful to anybody.

That's a difference between AOM and ISO: ISO puts specs behind a paywall but anyone interested can participate in the actual standardization process through their national standardization body, AOM makes specs publicly available but participating in the standardization process costs about as much as a nice car. I don't really like either model, but I don't think I particularly prefer AOM's model.

We created avenues for open source / community participation in AOM that did not require people to pay any money. Specifically, Mozilla sponsored the membership of VideoLAN, which in theory anyone could join, and a number of people did and do participate through that organization.

That's good to know, and nice that Mozilla did that!

...After seeing this, I no longer care if JXL lives or dies.

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