The main thing that you are missing is the practical downsides are very limited and that AVC/H.264 has won the war for the current generation of codecs (and did so many years again when it was baked into the silicon of the popular smartphones when iPhone and Android first launched (and it was used for Blu-ray, digital TV (in much of the world) and for many other non computer based systems. VP8 cannot be added to those devices. Practically every device supports AVC and new devices will continue to do so anyway for compatibility with existing systems and services so inclusion of VP8 would always be additional on the VAST majority of devices.

> Mozilla has been resisting Googles libre codecs even though they come with full source code and a patent pledge. Google has already even paid to eliminate potential threat from the evil MPEG LA. It is as free(libre) as you can get in this space.

Probably true although Nokia wasn't in the MPEG-LA VP8 pool and was bringing legal action. Not sure where this went but it might still be "as free(libre) as you can get in this space" without reverting to MPEG1 on which the patents should be expired by now.

> On the other hand, the Cisco plugin is no solution at all. A binary module that has to be downloaded by each user? How can Mozilla justify recommending/requiring a binary module whose source it can not view/audit/share? This approach wouldn't be permitted under Debian Free Software Guidelines, thus ensuring that WebRTC-Firefox won't work on debian and its derivatives.

As others have said it is auditable and open source. Debian could offer an option to download or not include it either leaving nothing or offering an non patent licensed FFMPEG decoder or the Cisco one without license or others.

Actually source distribution is probably not patent infringement and neither is personal use so for many people they could freely build from source themselves. Businesses may need to use the Cisco binary or otherwise procure a license.

Practically there is no barrier even if there is an ideological one. I don't expect Stallman to use the Cisco binary although few of us adhere as consistently to the free software lifestyle (and even he makes practical compromises sometimes).

> Cisco benefits from H.264 winning the standards battle. They also have patents in the MPEG LA pool. Apple, MS and Cisco - none of them are under any obligations to provide a libre implementation of WebRTC. Only Google and Mozilla have that responsibility. And they can make it happen today by just agreeing to go with VP8 and VP9 when it lands (both are covered by the patent pledge as well as under the MPEG LA agreement).

Cisco mainly win by being able to sell gear that is compatible everywhere without needing to bake in two codecs and have transcoding gear everywhere for when a Firefox/Chrome wants to talk to a phone user.

> H.264 is a defacto standard already, I understand. But google, with its control of youtube and Android, can make a serious dent in that. If Moz and Google ensure that VP8 becomes the de-jure WebRTC standard, a Free software implementation of that can be released by mozilla today. No need to wait for Dwolla to come to fruition.

It is an international standard too. Google could have made a dent in it a couple of years ago at the cost of some real fraction of Youtube traffic and revenue but it didn't. Moz and Google cannot ensure VP8 becomes the de-jure WebRTC standard because of the existing mobile hardware. [I haven't been following Dwolla so no comment on that].

> I'd really like to understand what I am missing here.

You are missing that AVC won the battle for the generation of video codecs we are currently using at sometime around 2005. (The competition at the time was VC-1, Xiph's video codecs were nowhere near at the time).

You are missing the practical benefits of ubiquity and especially mobile the benefits of hardware support.

I hope Monty is right and that Daala is going to be sufficiently better than HEVC in time to be relevant for the next generation and that it is free of patents. If that doesn't happen we will need to wait for about 2015[1] for a truly free and Free video ubiquitous video codec and that will be AVC when all the patents have expired.

[1] Estimate, I haven't checked the expiry dates, all should have been filed well before then but the grant dates are also critical.