Except it's not "free" in the Free software sense. Google specifically addresses why they didn't use a GPL license but rather BSD. They want to promote WebM in proprietary, closed, products.

http://www.webmproject.org/about/faq/ "One of the goals of having this code licensed as liberally as possible is to encourage adoption by as many users as possible. This includes both proprietary and free software. Using the GPL license would not be a good match for this goal."

The WebM issue is far from black and white. I still haven't figured out which side I agree with more. What I do know is that a lot of people are arguing tactics. This is a battle between corporations and everybody should be taking 100 steps back to try to figure out the strategies at work on both sides.

Edit: What I'm alluding to in my last point is a lot like Paul Graham's point in this essay from a while back: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html