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Re: quickcam: "Free VIDEC access campaign", Step 1
Hi!
On Mon, 9 Jun 1997, Henning Holtschneider wrote:
> On Mon, 9 Jun 1997, Hanno Mueller wrote:
> > Basically, I want to get the people at Connectix realize that there are a _lot_
> > of people interested in making the VIDEC algorithm a part of third party
> > drivers. Also, I want to give them a "ready to sign" list of terms for a free
> > VIDEC licensing policy.
> 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 ;-)
1. If it is patented, it should be possible, to understand the
decompression algorithm from the patent, BUT
2. If you read the patent, then you see, that there they describe a
*lossless* algorithm. VIDEC is not lossless, I think. Furthermore it is
not possible (at least in Germany) to patent an algorithm, only in special
cases, eg if you double the RAM of a machine a make so the machine more
powerfull. So I believe that the described algorithm is of the ramdoubler
(http://www.quickcam.com/ramdoubler.html)
Gero
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Gero Wedemann
DKFZ / Division Biophysics of Macromolecules
Tlf. (+49) 6221-42-3392
email gero.wedemann@dkfz-heidelberg.de
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