MrSID support in Mapserver 4.4.1

[William K]

Hm, is the MrSID DSDK license really that bad?  I thought it looked OK
to build it into open source software for binary distribution (ie
GDAL).  I hadn't heard about their close-minded view of Mapserver
though.  Maybe I should remove it from my GIS Libs package (which is
used by my separate MapServer package) for Mac OS X?

I don't like to stir up possible trouble, so I never actually asked
LizardTech about it.  Good thing to hear about the ECW license - I'm
waiting for the next version in development to be supported for Mac OS
X (it's supposed to), but haven't looked at the license yet.


On Apr 15, 2005, at 11:46 AM, Howard Butler wrote:

> Brendan,
>
> MrSID is supported very well in GDAL (and therefore MapServer).  At one
> time, you had to pay $500 to purchase the decompression SDK (which
> could be
> used with GDAL), but this restriction was lifted last fall (a quick
> google
> will find a screed by yours truly railing against this).  The
> situation is
> *much* better now that the decompression SDK is freely available for
> personal use.
>
> The problem right now, in my opinion, is that neither ECW nor MrSID
> decompression support are really redistributable because of the effort
> required to enforce their licensing restrictions.  For a distribution
> builder, this presents a problem.  At one time, in my "Kitchen sink"
> binaries, I had ECW and MrSID support, but now that I know more about
> the
> licensing stuff, I am refraining from doing that anymore.  It isn't
> worth
> the hot water I could potentially get in.  It's unfortunate, because
> building up a MapServer+GDAL+xyz libraries on windows is a pretty
> formidable challenge for most users, especially those who just want to
> be
> able to use publicly available data like the NAIP imagery (which only
> comes
> in MrSID form).
>
> Another thing to note is that the consensus is that the current ECW
> license
> pretty much prevents its use with MapServer.  The next revision of the
> license is supposed to allow its use with MapServer and others.  Even
> so,
> it is probably unlikely that you'll see a MapServer binary distribution
> that you can download and use with support for ECW (or MrSID) without
> compiling everything yourself.
>
> Howard
>
>
>
> At 11:06 AM 4/15/2005, Brendan Walashek wrote:
>> It was my understanding that Mr.SID was not supported because
>> Lizardtech
>> never wanted it to work with MapServer because of licensing issues.
>> ie.
>> they didn't want it to serve SID images in an Open Source environment
>> over
>> the web for free without licensing it....just rings a bell from
>> something I
>> read somehwere on this list awhile back...
>> Anyone else?
>
>
-----
William Kyngesburye <kyngchaos at charter.net>
http://webpages.charter.net/kyngchaos/

"Those people who most want to rule people are, ipso-facto, those least
suited to do it."

- A rule of the universe, from the HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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