The Last MPEG-4 Visual Patent Has Expired
The final patent for the MPEG-4 Visual video compression standard has officially expired. This marks the end of a long-standing licensing era for the technology that was foundational to early digital video streaming.
Why it matters
The expiration removes legal and financial barriers for developers using this legacy codec, simplifying open-source software integration.
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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