Xiph.Org Foundation is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that produces free

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradi ...

formats and software tools. It focuses on the

Ogg Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The authors of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high-quality di ...

family of formats, the most successful of which has been

Vorbis Vorbis is a free and open-source software project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The project produces an audio coding format and software reference encoder/decoder (codec) for lossy audio compression. Vorbis is most commonly used in con ...

, an open and freely licensed audio format and

codec A codec is a device or computer program that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. ''Codec'' is a portmanteau of coder/decoder. In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder on a signal or ...

designed to compete with the patented WMA,

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Orig ...

and

AAC AAC may refer to: Aviation * Advanced Aircraft, a company from Carlsbad, California * Alaskan Air Command, a radar network * American Aeronautical Corporation, a company from Port Washington, New York * American Aviation, a company from Cleveland, ...

. As of 2013, development work was focused on

Daala Daala is a video coding format under development by the Xiph.Org Foundation under the lead of Timothy B. Terriberry mainly sponsored by the Mozilla Corporation. Like Theora and Opus, Daala is available free of any royalties and its reference i ...

, an open and patent-free video format and codec designed to compete with VP9 and the patented

High Efficiency Video Coding High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2, is a video compression standard designed as part of the MPEG-H project as a successor to the widely used Advanced Video Coding (AVC, H.264, or MPEG-4 Part 10). In compa ...

. In addition to its in-house development work, the foundation has also brought several already-existing but complementary

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, ...

projects under its aegis, most of which have a separate, active group of developers. These include

Speex Speex is an audio compression codec specifically tuned for the reproduction of human speech and also a free software speech codec that may be used on VoIP applications and podcasts. It is based on the CELP speech coding algorithm.Xiph.OrIntro ...

, an audio codec designed for speech, and

FLAC FLAC (; Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an audio coding format for lossless compression of digital audio, developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, and is also the name of the free software project producing the FLAC tools, the reference software p ...

, a lossless audio codec. The Xiph.Org Foundation has criticized

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

and the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

for their lack of openness. They state that if companies like Microsoft had owned

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

on the Internet, then other companies would have tried to compete, and "The Net, as designed by warring corporate entities, would be a battleground of incompatible and expensive 'standards' had it actually survived at all." They also criticize the RIAA for their support of projects such as the

Secure Digital Music Initiative Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) was a forum formed in late 1998,Leonardo ChiariglioneRiding the Media Bits. Opening content protection chiariglione.org, 2003 composed of more than 200 IT, consumer electronics, security technology, ISP and re ...

. In 2008, the

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft ("s ...

listed the Xiph.Org projects as

High Priority Free Software Projects The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft (" ...

History

Chris Montgomery Christopher "Monty" Montgomery (born June 6, 1972) is an American programmer. He is the original creator of the Ogg Free Software container format and the Vorbis audio codec and others, and the founder of Xiph.Org Foundation, The Xiph.Org Found ...

, creator of the

container format, founded the Xiphophorus company and later the Xiph.Org Foundation. The first work that became the Ogg media projects started in 1994. The name "Xiph" abbreviates the original organizational name, "Xiphophorus", named after the common swordtail fish, ''Xiphophorus hellerii''. It was officially incorporated on 15 May 1996 as Xiphophorus, Inc. The name "Xiphophorus company" was used until 2002, when it was renamed to Xiph.Org Foundation. In 1999, the Xiphophorus company defined itself on its website as ''"a distributed group of Free and Open Source programmers working to protect the foundations of Internet multimedia from domination by self-serving corporate interests."'' In 2002, the Xiph.Org Foundation defined itself on its website as ''"a non-profit corporation dedicated to protecting the foundations of Internet multimedia from control by private interests."'' In March 2003, the Xiph.Org Foundation was recognized by the

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...

as a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization,Xiph.Org (2003-03-24
Speex reaches 1.0; Xiph.Org now a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization
Retrieved 2009-09-01 which means that U.S. citizens can deduct donations made to Xiph.Org from their taxes.

Xiph.Org Foundation projects

– a multimedia

container format A container format (informally, sometimes called a wrapper) or metafile is a file format that allows multiple data streams to be embedded into a single file, usually along with metadata for identifying and further detailing those streams. Not ...

, a

reference implementation In the software development process, a reference implementation (or, less frequently, sample implementation or model implementation) is a program that implements all requirements from a corresponding specification. The reference implementation ...

, and the native file and stream format for the Xiph.org multimedia codecs **

– a lossy audio compression format and codec **

Theora Theora is a free lossy video compression format. It is developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation and distributed without licensing fees alongside their other free and open media projects, including the Vorbis audio format and the Ogg container ...

– a lossy

video coding format A video coding format (or sometimes video compression format) is a content representation format for storage or transmission of digital video content (such as in a data file or bitstream). It typically uses a standardized video compression alg ...

and codec **

– a lossless audio compression format and software **

– a lossy

speech encoding Speech coding is an application of data compression of digital audio signals containing speech. Speech coding uses speech-specific parameter estimation using audio signal processing techniques to model the speech signal, combined with generic d ...

format and software (deprecated) **

CELT The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...

– an ultra-low delay lossy audio compression format that has been merged into Opus, and is now obsolete **

Opus ''Opus'' (pl. ''opera'') is a Latin word meaning " work". Italian equivalents are ''opera'' (singular) and ''opere'' (pl.). Opus or OPUS may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Opus number, (abbr. Op.) specifying order of (usually) publicati ...

– a low delay lossy audio compression format originally intended for

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Interne ...

Tremor A tremor is an involuntary, somewhat rhythmic, muscle contraction and relaxation involving oscillations or twitching movements of one or more body parts. It is the most common of all involuntary movements and can affect the hands, arms, eyes, f ...

– an integer-only implementation of the Vorbis audio decoder for embedded devices (software) **

OggPCM Ogg is a free file format, free, open format, open container format (digital), container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The authors of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide fo ...

– an encapsulation of

PCM audio Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the a ...

data inside the Ogg container format **Skeleton – a structuring information for multi-track Ogg files (a logical bitstream within an Ogg stream) ** RTP payloads – containers for Vorbis, Theora, Speex and Opus. ** CMML – an XML-based markup language for time-continuous data (a timed text codec; deprecated) **