On Mon, 11 Feb 2002, Mithun Bhattacharya wrote:
> > Did some more research and it isn't illegal. The codecs are free, and
> > so are the divx4linux libraries (which MPlayer can also use).
>
> I was just referring to the .asf and .wma files which is when most
> people usually turn to Mplayer for ;). Mpeg 4 is probably the only
file formats cannot be patented. it is the encoding/decoding algorithms
that can be. a company that develops a file format may choose not to
disclose its structure, but they cannot restrict others from using it by
patenting it. they can stop you from using a particular algorithm to
generate it (LZW compression for GIFs), but if you figure out another
(generate a random number that just happens to be a valid gzipped file,
which when ungzipped gives c source that when compiled and run,
magically generates GIFs).
--
COBOL is for morons.
-- E.W. Dijkstra
_______________________________________________
linux-india-help mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-india-help
