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.<div>
<br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>-Eric</div><div><br clear="all">-=--=---=----=----=---=--=-=--=---=----=---=--=-=-<br>Eric B. Wolf New! 720-334-7734<br>USGS Geographer<br>Center of Excellence in GIScience<br>PhD Student <br>
CU-Boulder - Geography<br><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Landon Blake <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lblake@ksninc.com">lblake@ksninc.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
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<p><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">I realized that publishing a spec for a file format like
MRSID isn’t as clear cut as I had at first thought. If the MRSID software
uses a fancy top-secret compression/decompression algorithm to move data to and
from the file format knowing only the structure of the format would do no good.
You’d have to release the details of the algorithm as well.</span></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">I still don’t think proprietary file formats are a
good idea for government data released to the public, but I admit that having a
company like LizardTech publish a spec for something like MRSID is not
necessarily a simple task. No doubt a lot of time and money goes into
developing those algorithms.</span></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">This makes me wonder about algorithms used to purposefully
encrypt binary file formats. That is another can of worms. It looks like the
easiest thing to do is to start with a file format that was designed to be open
from the very beginning.</span></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Landon</span></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></font></p>
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