If I’m interpreting this correctly, many MP4 patents are going to expire next year. 🎉

    • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Someone will most likely patent hack it in order to reclaim it, then try to patent troll about it… Because corporate people are jerks.

      • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        Someone will most likely patent hack it in order to reclaim it, then try to patent troll about it… Because corporate people are jerks.

        How? If the tech is older than 25 years, it’s prior art no matter what. MP3 is fully free for the same reasons.

        • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          Happened recently with a 1995 patent by a Stratasys, on a stronger technique for 3D printing using a brick infill method.

          Someone re-parented a variation to prevent it being public domain until 2040.

          • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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            50 minutes ago

            Someone re-parented a variation to prevent it being public domain until 2040.

            So the variation cannot be used. That’s irrelevant for a file format. Some company could, for example, patent a more efficient encoding technique but the resulting file format is still public domain. So at worst an open source encoder would need to be slightly inefficient because it uses the traditional technique.

          • tetris11
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            1 hour ago

            This is why we can’t have nice things…

  • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
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    4 hours ago

    Nice overview and conclusion right at the top. Last edited 19. Nov, so its pretty active. I’m glad its not named “Are We H.264 AVC Yet?”. :D