Libmpeg2
Encyclopedia
libmpeg2 is a free and open source software
library
for decoding MPEG-1
and MPEG-2
video streams. libmpeg2 is released under the terms of the GNU GPL license.
library is released under free and open source license it is legally redistributable. However, the MPEG-2 compression algorithm method is owned by the MPEG Licensing Authority and are in many countries protected by software patent
s. Absent such a licence from the MPEG Licensing Authority, it could possibly be illegal in certain countries to distribute compiled versions of libmpeg2 for the purpose of decoding MPEG-1
and/or MPEG-2
video streams.
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
library
Library (computer science)
In computer science, a library is a collection of resources used to develop software. These may include pre-written code and subroutines, classes, values or type specifications....
for decoding MPEG-1
MPEG-1
MPEG-1 is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital video and CD audio down to 1.5 Mbit/s without excessive quality loss, making video CDs, digital cable/satellite TV and digital audio broadcasting possible.Today, MPEG-1 has become...
and MPEG-2
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
video streams. libmpeg2 is released under the terms of the GNU GPL license.
Legality and software patents
Since the libmpeg2 source codeSource code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
library is released under free and open source license it is legally redistributable. However, the MPEG-2 compression algorithm method is owned by the MPEG Licensing Authority and are in many countries protected by software patent
Software patent
Software patent does not have a universally accepted definition. One definition suggested by the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure is that a software patent is a "patent on any performance of a computer realised by means of a computer program".In 2005, the European Patent Office...
s. Absent such a licence from the MPEG Licensing Authority, it could possibly be illegal in certain countries to distribute compiled versions of libmpeg2 for the purpose of decoding MPEG-1
MPEG-1
MPEG-1 is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital video and CD audio down to 1.5 Mbit/s without excessive quality loss, making video CDs, digital cable/satellite TV and digital audio broadcasting possible.Today, MPEG-1 has become...
and/or MPEG-2
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
video streams.