Thanks for the clarification, Michael! And your comments about IP may also add to the paper I am developing (or another).
I have a theme I plan to develop at some point - mostly dealing with the inherent limitations of copyrighted software in an era of cloud computing... -Eric -=--=---=----=----=---=--=-=--=---=----=---=--=-=- Eric B. Wolf New! 720-334-7734 USGS Geographer Center of Excellence in GIScience PhD Student CU-Boulder - Geography On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 2:54 PM, Michael P. Gerlek <m...@lizardtech.com>wrote: > Some clarifications: > > > > - MrSID has both lossy and lossless modes > > - MrSID is not fractal based; it uses wavelets (and arithmetic encoding) > > - you can’t copyright algorithms; the MrSID source code certainly is, > however > > - MrSID relies on a number of patents, not all of which are owned by > LizardTech > > - reading MrSID does not require any fees; we have libraries you can > download, although they are not open source > > > > That said, some editorial comments (although I’m now wishing I hadn’t been > so quick to rise to Landon’s bait :-) > > > > - Some of you know the history of trying to open source MrSID; I won’t go > into that here, except to say that LizardTech doesn’t own all of the > required IP needed to make that happen. > > - If we are speaking of the NAIP data, then no, it is not exclusively > available in MrSID format; it is also shipped as GeoTIFFs. > > - JPEG 2000 is a very robust open standard alternative to MrSID, and a > number of players already support it (including LizardTech), but not enough > to make it viable for certain domains like NAIP. > > - some of you also know the history on open JP2 support: there is today no > open source implementation of JP2 that is suitable for geo work. Alas. > > > > -mpg > > > > > > *From:* discuss-boun...@lists.osgeo.org [mailto: > discuss-boun...@lists.osgeo.org] *On Behalf Of *Eric Wolf > *Sent:* Thursday, August 20, 2009 2:15 PM > *To:* OSGeo Discussions > *Subject:* Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Open File Formats and Proprietary > Algorithms > > > > The MRSID format is a very special case - and perhaps an opportunity for a > new FOSS file format. MRSID is a lossless, fractal-based, multi-scale raster > compression format. LizardTech has the algorithms to encode and decode MRSID > locked up in copyrights, and I believe, patents. Even companies like ESRI > shell out big bucks to LizardTech to be able to read and write the MRSID > format. > > > > I guess I missed the context of the discussion. Is the government releasing > certain data exclusively in this format? If so, I think the argument can be > made against this practice. The different in compression between MRSID and > gziped TIFFs isn't really that great in this day of cheap disks and fat > pipes. > > > > -Eric > > > -=--=---=----=----=---=--=-=--=---=----=---=--=-=- > Eric B. Wolf New! 720-334-7734 > USGS Geographer > Center of Excellence in GIScience > PhD Student > CU-Boulder - Geography > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@lists.osgeo.org > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > >
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