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Re: quickcam: "Free VIDEC access campaign", Step 1
>I don't think you will ever get that. Connectix has a patent on VIDEC
>(http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/details?patent_number=5617552). They would
>be very naive if they gave out source code to it ;-)
Many other algorithms are patented. Think of GIF or MPEG.
>I think one should focus on getting Connectix to publish a library (or
>perhaps just an object file containing the necessary functions) to decode
>the VIDEC stream. That would be good enough. Certainly, Connectix doesn't
>want to invest a lot of time and money to do that. So, someone (you,
>Hanno? ;>) should try to tell them: "Many people would like to have VIDEC
>support for their QuickCam under Unix. I'm a programmer capable of
>programming a VIDEC engine for *nix and I'll do it for free (or for little
>money $-) ). I'll sign a NDA, you let me program the library and then
>everyone can use it for free - as one can download a VIDEC module for
>Windows from your WWW site.". I think this is the only way it _could_
>work.
I think we could still try and get the full thing. But your suggestion may
be the second option one can offer them. It's worth a thought.
I doubt that they would give me "little money" for that. To the contrary,
they will probably expect a single developer to pay a license fee.
Greetings,
Hanno