• humanspiral@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    7 hours ago

    has to pay a per-device licensing fee.

    Where I’m confused, is that it would be a perpertual/long term annual license fee per device. It would make sense to have a one time fee per device shipped. That would not affect older models.

    I guess what is happening is that manufacturers can stop paying for the capabilities by “downgrading” their driver support, and it affects old and new systems the same when users “update”?

    • tiramichu@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 hours ago

      The headline is a little misleading.

      As I understand it, they haven’t retroactively removed the HEVC capability from any devices that already shipped with it already enabled.

      Rather, they have stopped including it in new ones of the same model or in certain new models, even though those machines still have CPUs which have the capability built in for it.

      This has resulted in e.g. businesses buying a laptop which works fine for conference calls and other stuff, then buying another laptop the “exact same” and suddenly it’s nerfed.