Web video gets H.264 royalty reprieve  The group that licenses
the widely used H.264 video compression technology decides
against adding a Web-streaming royalty charge that could have
helped rival formats such as Ogg Theora.    Many have been
waiting to hear what MPEG LA would announce for the licensing
terms beyond 2010. On Tuesday, the group said it extended the
free-streaming policy until December 31, 2015.  That extension
could help encourage Web sites to use it instead of rivals such
as Ogg Theora, which isn't encumbered by patents, or On2
Technologies' VP7 or VP8.  H.264, Ogg Theora, and VP8 are what's
called codecs--technology that encodes and decodes digital
information. In the case of digital video, codecs compress the
original material for storage or transmission, then expand it
again for viewing. The highest-profile Web streaming site using
H.264 is a doozy: Google's YouTube.  H.264 opposition Given some
significant opposition to H.264 in Web streaming that contrasts
with its widespread use, it's n