Editing FFmpeg (section)

=== Legal aspects ===
FFmpeg contains more than 100 codecs,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ffmpeg.org/general.html#Supported-File-Formats_002c-Codecs-or-Features |title=Codecs list |publisher=ffmpeg.org |access-date=2012-01-01 |archive-date=2012-01-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106131336/http://ffmpeg.org/general.html#Supported-File-Formats_002c-Codecs-or-Features |url-status=live }}</ref> most of which use compression techniques of one kind or another. Many such compression techniques may be subject to legal claims relating to [[software patent]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ffmpeg.org/legal.html |title=Legal information on FFmpeg's website |publisher=ffmpeg.org |access-date=2012-01-04 |archive-date=2012-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103190924/http://ffmpeg.org/legal.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Such claims may be enforceable in countries like the United States which have implemented software patents, but are considered unenforceable or void in member countries of the [[European Union]], for example.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-11-29|title=The European Patent Convention|url=https://www.epo.org/en/legal/epc/2020/a52.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119121958/https://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/epc/2020/e/ar52.html|archive-date=2021-11-19|access-date=2021-11-24|website=www.epo.org|publisher=[[European Patent Office]]|language=en}}</ref>{{Original research inline|date=November 2021|certain=y}} Patents for many older codecs, including AC3 and all MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 codecs, have expired.{{Citation needed|date=October 2017}}

FFmpeg is licensed under the LGPL license, but if a particular build of FFmpeg is linked against any GPL libraries (notably [[x264]]), then the entire binary is licensed under the GPL.