In the sort of world that we've occupied until now there is nobody who is going to sue you for making a cat video using a particular codec.  But I notice that over time enforcement of licenses is becoming more strict, and perhaps eventually license enforcement will be automatic.<p>Using the H.264 standard for video on the internet seems like a dumb decision to me.  It's not rocket science to choose some format which doesn't have potentially debilitating licensing issues associated with it.