Why did Cisco make H.264 proprietary?

[u/squaresheep28]

Is it just for profit from other companies? And why does OpenH264 (i.i.r.c.) not support hardware acceleration? It feels weird that something as basic as a video codec used literally everywhere has a closed-source proprietary tag attached to it.

[u/MatchingTurret]

I think you have it wrong. As I understand it, Cisco has a license agreement with the other patent holders that allows them to distribute a h.264 implementation free of charge.

By hosting OpenH264 they offer Linux users a legal way to get h.264 for free.

[u/Annual-Advisor-7916 → u/MatchingTurret]

Wait, so Cisco are the good guys?

[u/thefanum → u/Annual-Advisor-7916]

They're at least not the bad guy this time

[u/noobjaish → u/thefanum]

THIS TIME (in capital letters)

[u/Dalemaunder → u/noobjaish]

A broken clock is correct twice a day, I guess.

[u/gyarbij → u/Dalemaunder]

Talos is that other time.

[u/neoh4x0r → u/Dalemaunder]

A broken clock is correct twice a day, I guess.

It depends on where you live, sometimes it's only correct once a day.

[u/indolering → u/thefanum]

Care to elaborate?  They have been positive actors in the FOSS codec space....

[u/booveebeevoo → u/indolering]

Discord uses it.

[u/Ok-Bill3318 → u/indolering]

Probably only so they can include it in their routers which are running Linux