Software patents aren't an issue in most of the world. Codecs however are used all over the world. No one is going to use a codec that is illegal to use in the US and EU.

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astrange 8 days ago | parent [-]

EU would be one of the places that doesn't have software patents, which is why VLC is based there.

	▲	rowanG077 8 days ago \| parent [-]
		It's not that simple. Software patents exists in the EU, the requirements are much more strict though. For example Netflix was ordered to cease their use of H265 in germany: https://www.nexttv.com/news/achtung-baby-netflix-loses-paten...