who'da thunk it?

thanks for letting me know that US != world. being a german citizen, that is quite a
reassuring fact. :-D
bickering aside, you have misread the web page you were linking to. the implementation itself
is free (GNU GPL), but there are patents involved:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H264#Patent_licensing
which is an issue in the US, specifically, because of their software patent laws.
i guess you will find that your money is involved either way... 
but i'd rather consumers had to pay a little more to access content, than see independent
content creators threatened by bullying corporations or lobby organizations over patent
issues.