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Windows 11's New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs
(www.extremetech.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2026
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I don't think this is true or ffmpeg wouldn't keep the proprietary codecs in a separate branch with no binary download. If you want a compiled ffmpeg binary with mp3, you need to download it from a 3rd party.
ffmpeg binaries from pretty much anyone should have libmp3lame baked-in. the format was 'freed' from the last patent in 2017.
That's good to know that it's been updated but the reason it wasn't in the default binaries until the patent expired was because "it's free" isn't a defense from being sued by a patent holder.
Vlc including patented codecs is getting away with it despite the sword hanging over the project. Ffmpeg prefers to be safe because many free OpenSource projects have been shut down by patent holders.