I don’t know what a .webp file is but I don’t like it. They’re like a filthy prank version of the image/gif you’re looking for. They make you jump through all these hoops to find the original versions of the files that you can actually do anything with.

Edit: honestly I assumed it had something to do with Google protecting themselves from image piracy shit

  • Dark Arc
    151•1 year ago

    and that it’s owned by Google.

    I mean yes, but it’s patent irrevocably royalty free (so long as you don’t sue people claiming WebM/P as your own/partially your own work), so it’s effectively owned by the public.

    Google hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this section) patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer implementations of the WebM Specifications, where such license applies only to those patent claims, both currently owned by Google and acquired in the future, licensable by Google that are necessarily infringed by implementation of the WebM Specifications. If You or your agent or exclusive licensee institute or order or agree to the institution of patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that any implementation of the WebM Specifications constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, or inducement of patent infringement, then any rights granted to You under the License for the WebM Specifications shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed. “WebM Specifications” means the specifications to the WebM codecs as embodied in the source code to the WebM codecs or any written description of such specifications, in either case as distributed by Google.

    Source: https://www.webmproject.org/license/bitstream/

    (But Dark, that’s WebM not WebP! – they share the same license: https://groups.google.com/a/webmproject.org/g/webp-discuss/c/W4_j7Tlofv8)

    • @[email protected]
      29•1 year ago

      Thank you for this. I was kind of on the fence because of its ties to google but this helps a ton.

      • @[email protected]
        -39•1 year ago

        You could still be on the fence. It’s Google so for sure it has the possibility of tracking or some other user exploiting bullshit feature but we haven’t figure it out yet.

          • @[email protected]
            41•1 year ago

            It’s also just an open file format. Anyone could implement it, and in fact I found dozens of completely independent implementations of webp decoders on GitHub in various languages.

            There really is no secret ulterior motive in this case.

            • @[email protected]
              10•1 year ago

              There really is no secret ulterior motive in this case.

              Sort of. Smaller images mean it’s less work for Google to crawl and index them, if every image is 40% smaller then that’s potentially saving them millions a year in storage and bandwidth costs.

              So, yea, it’s better for the web but it also massively benefits them.

              • /home/pineapplelover
                5•1 year ago

                Well, they crawl and index anyways. I see no harm done with .webp. One of my friends said with .webp you can’t save an image because it stops you from doing that somehow? I’m unsure, maybe true maybe not.

              • @[email protected]
                3•1 year ago

                I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make.

                Chromium and Android really are open-source. There are hundreds of products like Electron and Fire OS built on top of them without any involvement or consent from Google.

                Just because Google Chrome and Pixel phones have some proprietary code doesn’t mean that Android and Chromium aren’t open.

                • @[email protected]
                  1•1 year ago

                  Well your right I wasn’t clear in my answer. They are open source but for the point of this discussion with open source software backed by an corporation the open source it’s just a mean of spreading “soft power” maybe gather inovation from the market and for sure to offer a way for FOSS creators to use their energies to build in the “correct” direction. The purpose it’s building a monopoly on certain aspects of the market.

                  Chromium is open source and a lot of small projects have sprouted from it but with the same undelying technology. Except for Firefox, Edge and Safary, everyone stems from the same roots controlled by google trough money and market share. So in this case Chrome dominates the market and decides the course of the industry. See mv3.

                  Android is open source and some projects are build on top of it but the big market share so the direction of the technology is controlled by Google.

                  Let them decide a stadard for pictures which has undeniable advantages and I bet you that tomorow they will decide how you share and visualise images and videos.

                  It’s not about being open source it’s about that project being a tool used by a company to spread their interests (which usually end up being predatory towards the common user).