In the United States I would like to know if it is legal to use propriety video and audio codecs in Ubuntu. Specifically I would like to know if I can play mp3 files on Ubuntu, and if I can install and use the libx264 library to do video editing and export mp4 files.
I went to Computex in Taiwan today and I went to the Ubuntu booth. A person there told me that Canonical has paid for the right/license to use proprietary audio and video formats/codecs. Is this true? I asked the person if he could show me anything online that said this and he could not find anything. Is there any list of codecs/formats that can be used legally in the United States for the purpose of listening to audio, watching video and audio and video editing?
I want to use OpenShot to edit some video and export it to mp4 using libx264 but I want to do it legally.