[gst-devel] Can a MPEG-1 with Audio Layers 1&2 plugin be in plugins-good (patentwise)?

[jjcogliati-gstreamer at yahoo.com]

Gstreamer does not include a MPEG-1 video decoder or a MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2 decoder in the set of base plugins and good plugins.  I presume that this is because of patent concerns.  

After looking on the web, I was unable to find anyone requesting royalties for patents for MPEG-1 video or MPEG-1 Audio Layer 1 or 2 (AudioMPEG might be, but their webpage is somewhat ambiguous).  Since the near complete draft standard was publicly available in 1991, any US patents would have to have been filed by 1992 (laws are different in other parts of the world).  Since in the US patents filed before 1995 last the longer of 20 years from the filing date or 17 years after the grant date, patents filed before 1988 generally have expired, so the windows for still valid patents is basically 1988-1992, and getting smaller as time passes.  Among other things, if MPEG-1 video and MPEG-1 audio layer 2 decoders were added, gstreamer could play video cds.   I am not a lawyer, so my grasp of the issues could be wrong.  
I wrote this up in much more detail and put it at:
http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/MPEG_patent_status
and 
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/7/18/232618/312

So my questions for this list are:
1. Could a MPEG-1 video decoder that was acceptably licensed and of sufficient quality be added to the gstreamer good plugins?
2. Could a MPEG-1 audio layer 2 decoder that was acceptably licensed and of sufficient quality be added to the gstreamer good plugins?
3. If the answer to either of the above is no, what would prevent that from occurring?  

Thank you.

Josh Cogliati