XPost: sci.electronics.design   
   From: theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk   
      
   In comp.sys.raspberry-pi Lawrence D'Oliveiro  wrote:   
   > On Fri, 23 Aug 2024 06:19:06 GMT, Jan Panteltje wrote:   
   >   
   > > In the old days I had to buy a decoder key from Raspberry to even look   
   > > at mpeg!   
   >   
   > Presumably that was only to activate the decoder hardware. Otherwise   
   > FFmpeg, VLC etc could play it just fine, just with a bit more CPU usage.   
      
   It was to pay the patent licence fees for using the hardware decoder.  FOSS   
   software decode got around them by not having anyone the patent holders   
   could meaningfully sue.   
      
   Since that was 12 years ago, perhaps the patents have now expired?   
      
   Theo   
      
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