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Re: Legality of using VLC


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  • From: Frank Fulchiero <>
  • To: Richard Mavrogeanes <>
  • Cc: ,
  • Subject: Re: Legality of using VLC
  • Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 14:11:31 -0400

Hi Richard, thanks for looking into this.

The next step would be to figure out which video codecs need to be licensed.
For example, if a codec is not used, it could be removed, and then there should not be a licensing issue.

And whether licenses have to be paid twice.
Yesterday I played a DVD in a PC using Windows Media Player.
You mentioned that Microsoft does not include an MPEG2 decoder, yet I was able to do that.
There were no third party codecs installed.
How does that work from a licensing standpoint?

Thanks for your work on this, I hope you can help us figure out a better system than what we have now. It's really needed.

Frank Fulchiero
Digital Media Specialist
Connecticut College

(sorry, my email is flaky today, might have hit the send button twice)


On Apr 4, 2007, at 12:26 PM, Richard Mavrogeanes wrote:

From the MPEGLA:

Hi, Rich.

Good to hear from you as always.

VLC player is treated the same as any other product: it needs to be
licensed under essential patents for each video codec as well as any
other technologies it contains. To the extent it is not so licensed,
the product's provider along with anyone in the product chain is left
with patent infringement liability.

Best regards,

Dean

Dean Skandalis
Vice President, Licensing
MPEG LA
4601 Willard Avenue
Suite 200
Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815
U.S.A.




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