H264 video encoding will be free forever

Could kick start the standard
However it has now lifted that limit forever in a move to kill off any hesitation to use the standard. Many felt that because it was going to charge for the use of its codec they would not use it. Adding a fee to streaming costs could have driven users to free rival video encoding technology, notably WebM from Google. But is not clear what MPEG LA's cunning plan to make money based on the standard will be.
MPEG LA currently makes its cash by charging royalties for use in other areas, including Blu-ray drives and disk reproduction, broadcast television, cameras, and video editing software. The rise of new codecs will make the video content of the Web a lot more interesting in coming years.