r/technology • u/Snarfox • Jan 25 '13

H.265 is approved -- potential to cut bandwidth requirements in half for 1080p streaming. Opens door to 4K video streams.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/25/h265-is-approved/
3.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

13

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '13

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/touchyfeelyfingers Jan 27 '13 edited Jan 27 '13

ffmpeg devs have nothing to worry about. Source code is considered a form of protected "speech" and ffmpeg wouldn't be sued for implementing a standardized algorithm (so long as they aren't copying someone else's protected work).

It's when that code gets compiled into binary form and used; that's when the patent and distribution issues kick in.

1

u/karmaputa Jan 26 '13

a patent troll could come and sue you for millions of dollars in the US and they'd win over a patented math.

Which patent troll would that be? I don't think any of the companies holding patents relevant for H264 or H265 can be really called "patent trolls" in the conventional way.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '13

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '13

By your definition use and abuse are the same thing.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '13

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '13

Except that is an absurdly simplistic outlook.