• patatahooligan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      7 days ago

      Because patents cause issues for free software. Some examples:

      • As far as I can tell, vlc is legal only because French law does not recognize software patents, see here.
      • HDMI 2.1 support in AMDGPU is impossible, see here.
      • I think Media Foundation is unsupported in Proton because of patents as well, though I’m having trouble finding a reliable source on that.
    • hendrik@palaver.p3x.deEnglish
      29·
      7 days ago

      And free and open source software can be written, shared and used without potentially getting sued. And these projects power lots of things.

      • exu@feditown.comEnglish
        5·
        7 days ago

        To be fair, this is mainly a US issue. VLC (French) has provided h264 encoders and decoders for years.

        • hendrik@palaver.p3x.deEnglish
          3·
          7 days ago

          I mean ffmpeg, GStreamer etc also provide the encoders and decoders. That doesn’t make it legal. I think they’re all (including VLC) threatened by software patents. But you’re right. There are differences between the EU and other jurisdictions.