As far as the patents themselves go, there are still some patents on MP3 for a few years (I think they'll all be expired after 2018), and h.264 patents are staying around for much longer.
I don't know where you got the idea that Trisquel can't play MP3 files.
Trisquel has never not supported MP3 since the time I started using it, and I
was using it by 2012.
- [Trisquel-users] Does Trisquel support MP3 now? commodore256
- [Trisquel-users] Antwort: Does Trisquel suppor... shiretoko
- Re: [Trisquel-users] Does Trisquel support... commodore256
- Re: [Trisquel-users] Does Trisquel support MP3... onpon4
- Re: [Trisquel-users] Does Trisquel support... commodore256
- Re: [Trisquel-users] Does Trisquel sup... onpon4
- Re: [Trisquel-users] Does Trisquel... commodore256
- Re: [Trisquel-users] Does Tri... jason
- Re: [Trisquel-users] Does... greatgnu
- Re: [Trisquel-users] ... commodore256
- Re: [Trisquel-users] Does Trisquel sup... Adonay Felipe Nogueira
- [Trisquel-users] Re : Does Trisquel suppor... lcerf
- Re: [Trisquel-users] Does Trisquel support MP3... davesamcdxv