[MPlayer-dev-eng] FFII software patent demo, politics, KiSS

[Diego Biurrun]

Michael Niedermayer writes:
> On Monday 19 April 2004 05:42, Diego Biurrun wrote:
> [...]
> > On a more technical note, a thing both Alan and Georg would love to
> > see in the future are free codecs.  It's true, apart from flac, ffv1
> > and MJPEG all seem to be patent encumbered.  We told them we are
> iam not sure if ffv1 is free of patents, i surely hope it is but i
> plain dont know anyway, if any patented parts are found in ffv1 ill
> replace them if theres some free alternative

Shall I ask to FSF to help you out with research?  I have explicitly
been offered help in this area.

> designing a new lossy video codec like mpeg isnt difficult, whats
> difficult is reaching better compression/quality then existing
> codecs or avoiding patents

It doesn't have to be better, just good enough and free of patent
encumbrance.

> > working on a next generation free container format.  Georg had an idea
> > that Alan liked very much: We might make MPlayer print out an
> > informational warning message if it plays patent encumbered formats.
> > He said that should we decide to implement such a thing the FSF will
> > help us with researching the relevant patents.
> sounds interresting, as long as theres a way to turn it off
> but what exactly do we mean with patent encumbered?
> is it enough if conforming codecs are legally safe, or must every part of a 
> codec be useable for anything?
> btw, a GUI could also show a small icon somewhere which changes depending upon 
> the freeness of the format, much like the http/https icons from web browsers

yes

Diego