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Comment by aschwo | Hacker News Reader

This is a great development for decoding ProRes with non-OSX OSes. What are the legal implications? Will ffmpeg need to pay to license the ProRes codec from Apple? Does Apple even offer a license for the codec?

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if ffmpeg worried about patents and licensing, they would have stopped development a long time ago.

Your snarky remark can be read both ways:

  - if ffmpeg [developers] were overly scared about even remote risks of being sued, they'd stop.
  - if ffmpeg [developers] wanted to abide by the law, they'd have to stop.

and the second interpretation is quite unfair IMHO.

I meant it both ways, however the second interpretation is really only true under US law. A lot of parties would want a lot of money to license things, how would they pay?

Haven't they had this for a while (Post Date: August 28, 2008). http://support.apple.com/downloads/Apple_ProRes_QuickTime_De...

However, it's nice that they have it built into ffmpeg now.

It's read only for Windows, so Win apps can't write out a prores file. (In reference to Apple's decoder)

Windows is read only (although clipster somehow manages to write out prores files). There are two licensed products (hardware) that write out prores that I am aware of - ARRI Alexa cameras and AJA ki pro.

The ARRI Alexa records in Apple ProRes 4444 or Apple ProRes 422. I am not sure if they got a license, but they have been doing it a while.

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