>>3
Typical brainwashed GNU/Xiph sheep. The H.264 specification is free for download here:
http://www.itu.int/rec/dologin_pub.asp?lang=e&id=T-REC-H.264-200903-S!PDF-E
A free decoder (LGPL, good but ~15% slower than the leading ones):
http://git.ffmpeg.org/?p=ffmpeg;a=tree;f=libavcodec (h264* files mostly)
A free encoder (GPL, extremely high quality that beats all commercial encoders that I know about):
http://git.videolan.org/gitweb.cgi?p=x264.git;a=tree
Perhaps your concern are patents? In that case, I suggest you stop using your computer immediately, because at least the hardware is highly patent encumbered, and chances are the software you're using on it is covered by patents too.