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

[D Richard Felker III]

On Mon, Apr 19, 2004 at 07:15:46PM +0200, Alex Beregszaszi wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> > > > > 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.
> > sure, why not
> btw, imho mjpeg isn't free as FFII showed a patent according to JPEG on
> a banner

It's quite simple. Patents are so ridiculous that anything using any
concept similar to DCT/FT (or probably even any blockwise
change-of-basis) is patented. IMO it's not worth giving credit to
these invalid patents.. As long as these patents stand, it's simply
impossible to make a non-patented codec that performs any useful
compression.

I'm against any kind of "patent-warning" in MPlayer. It discourages
people from using good codecs. Better to get people used to having all
the codecs they should, so that they're outraged when some stupid
corporation tries to tell them they have to stop.

Rich