Have the patents for H.264 MPEG-4 AVC expired yet? - Meta
meta.wikimedia.org
  • @darthsidEnglish
    5•5 hours ago

    How would the patents expiring help the common man?

    • @patatahooliganEnglish
      3•1 hour ago

      Because patents cause issues for free software. Some examples:

      • As far as I can tell, vlc is legal only because French law does not recognize software patents, see here.
      • HDMI 2.1 support in AMDGPU is impossible, see here.
      • I think Media Foundation is unsupported in Proton because of patents as well, though I’m having trouble finding a reliable source on that.
    • hendrikEnglish
      18•5 hours ago

      And free and open source software can be written, shared and used without potentially getting sued. And these projects power lots of things.

      • @IsThisAnAIEnglish
        1•2 hours ago

        That’s absurd. This crap is pennies. $30 kid toys pay 264. The codec was commidized nearly a decade ago.