"The commercial use of patented H.264 technologies requires the payment of royalties to MPEG LA and other patent owners. MPEG LA has allowed the free use of H.264 technologies for streaming Internet video that is free to end users, and Cisco Systems pays royalties to MPEG LA on behalf of the users of binaries for its open source H.264 encoder."
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"On August 26, 2010, MPEG LA announced that royalties won't be charged for H.264 encoded Internet video that is free to end users.[74] All other royalties remain in place, such as royalties for products that decode and encode H.264 video as well as to operators of free television and subscription channels.[75] The license terms are updated in 5-year blocks.[76]"
[74] "MPEG LA's AVC License Will Not Charge Royalties for Internet Video that is Free to End Users through Life of License" (PDF). MPEG LA. August 26, 2010. Retrieved August 26, 2010. http://www.mpegla.com/Lists/MPEG%20LA%20News%20List/Attachme... [75] Hachman, Mark (August 26, 2010). "MPEG LA Cuts Royalties from Free Web Video, Forever". pcmag.com. Retrieved August 26, 2010. https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2368359,00.asp [76] "AVC FAQ". MPEG LA. August 1, 2002. Retrieved May 17, 2010. http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Pages/FAQ.aspx