[OSGeo-Discuss] Open File Formats and Proprietary Algorithms

Eric Wolf ebwolf at gmail.com
Thu Aug 20 16:58:23 EDT 2009


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 <mpg at 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-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:
> discuss-bounces at 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
>
>
>
>
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