The Last Of The MPEG-2 Patents Have Expired

Written by Michael Larabel in Free Software on 14 February 2018 at 09:49 AM EST. 16 Comments
FREE SOFTWARE
Just like with the recent expiry of the MP3 patents and AC3, the last of the MPEG-2 patents have now expired.

From the MPEG LA:
Please note that the last US patent expired February 13, 2018, and patents remain active in Philippines and Malaysia after that date. ​

Hopefully now we'll see greater MPEG-2 support in free software multimedia stacks for those still relying upon this format but now able to worry less with the last of the patents for this video codec expiring.

What a great Valentine's gift of having more multimedia patents expiring!
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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