• hottari
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    1 year ago

    The non-free components I’ve seen on installers are usually for Nvidia’s proprietary drivers. Not codecs.

    Sounds like legal panic if you ask me. There’s been no precedent for litigation on use of licensed codecs which most have been using either way prior in their builds and packages.

    • arglebargle@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      MPEG LA is (now Via Licensing Alliance) has been active in collecting fees and defending patents. There is no reason to assume they won’t go after distros, particularly those who can pay given that they are willing to take on anyone else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG_LA

      • hottari
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        1 year ago

        They have never gone after said distros all those many many years they have bundled licensed codecs in their ISOs. What changed?

        • arglebargle@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Because those distros have (as we are talking about) distanced themselves from the patent encumbered codecs? When Google tried to get behind VP8, MPEG LA was right there to try and stop them by trying to get them into the pool.

          Edit: I should have said many didn’t Fedora opted out of compiling mesa with hardware accell, and it seems others did too recently. But that means it was there the whole time. I guess most distros, that have any money, are going to want shelter from lawsuits.