Originally posted by deanjo
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No company can legally distribute any software that involves the playback of any of the most popular video codecs with purchasing a license. Period. Doesn't matter if it's legal DVDs, dodgy rips, or even your own legal rips. Red Hat cannot ship a DVD player because they cannot distibute MPEG2 decoders. MPEG2 is a patented video codec licensed by the MPEG-LA. They cannot even ship a DVD player that plays unencrypted streams because they still don't have a license for the codec.
You mentioned HD streams from cameras and the like, which means you obviously are unaware of the patent issues. Most (all?) HD cameras are either using MPEG2 or MPEG4-AVC. Guess what, MPEG4-AVC is also patent encumbered. Red Hat cannot ship with MPEG4-AVC codecs without purchasing a license from MPEG-LA. Youtube? MPEG4-AVC.
Nothing to do with DRM what so ever
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