Native video support for HTML 5 Scrapped

I read this Slashdot article that makes me sad. Enabling browser to natively implement the video tag to eliminate the number of plug-ins that create a broader attack surface would have been single-handedly the best step the HTML standard could have taken to protect the security of the internet. H.264 would be as poor of a choice as standardizing on mp3 for native music support (given the licensing nature of the standard). Ogg and Theora both stand as open independently developed standards that at least would not have required a royalty payment, and would have helped take us one step closer to a Flash free internet. The performance of Flash coupled with it pervasiveness make this one of my least favorite technologies, but what really gets my goat is that it takes focus (it is an application loading inside of another application) and breaks my keyboard navigation of websites.

I believe that Apples "licensing" concerns have much more to do with that they have put significant motion into supporting the h.264 codec with their video players, and are not interested in trying to duplicate that for Theora.