What do they get for free you ask? Patent licenses. That’s right, costly patent licenses don’t apply to French developers. How did this information all of a sudden come to light? With the anticipation of Windows 8 being shipped by Microsoft, minus the popular Media Center installed, the blogs are a chatter about an alternative to Media Center. A French developer has created a completely free program called VLC Media Player. It comes highly recommended and is completely 100% free. VLC Media Player is not subject to MPEG-2 licensing fees…nice huh?
This kind of thing would never fly in the United States, but because the developer is French and considered a non-profit (as it began as a student project), it is out of the reach of lawmakers in the U.S.
While this goes against everything Copyright law was created to prevent – what does it mean for us? Free Media player for Windows 8!