
Google is trying to patent video compression use of Asymmetric Numeral Systems - eln1
Asymmetric Numeral Systems ([1]) is entropy coding family currently replacing Huffman and arithmetic coding in data compressors, among others, of Apple, Facebook and Google, thanks to being up to 30x faster [2]. Its author has made it public to prevent pathology of arithmetic coding, which wide use was blocked by patents for many decades ([3], [4]).<p>However, currently others are trying to patent basic applications of ANS – including Google for AV1 video compressor (initially suggested by ANS author, who has helped them for the last 3 years: [5]) in very general patent application, to prevent others from using it in image and video compression – claims and sources: [6]<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Asymmetric_Numeral_Systems<p>[2] benchmarks: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sites.google.com&#x2F;site&#x2F;powturbo&#x2F;entropy-coder<p>[3] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Arithmetic_coding#US_patents<p>[4] Charles Bloom comment: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;cbloomrants.blogspot.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;05&#x2F;05-21-15-software-patents-are-fucking.html<p>[5] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;groups.google.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;webmproject.org&#x2F;forum&#x2F;#!topic&#x2F;codec-devel&#x2F;idezdUoV1yY<p>[6] Google claims and sources: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;encode.ru&#x2F;threads&#x2F;2648-Published-rANS-patent-by-Storeleap&#x2F;page3
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bhhaskin
Patents were originally created to protect inventers with little capital from
large companies with more capital pushing them out of the market before they
could become established. It's really sad how far the paten system has come.

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eln1
Here are 400+ comments on this topic:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6h08z5/google_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6h08z5/google_is_currently_trying_to_patent_video/)

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NTDF9
Hooli in the making?

