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Re: reverse engineering thousands of colors mode?
> > > Would there be a problem (legally) distributing source code
containing
> > > this information?
> >
> > The VIDEC compression used in 1000s of colours mode is patented (or
patent
> > pending, I don't know exactly). As far as I know - yes, there IS a
legal
> > problem.
>
> Oh yeah, sure, like Connectix is going to say "Please stop using our
product!"
It's not quite that simple. Of course, they want us to use their product.
I'm not a lawyer, but here's what I understood about the problem.
When something is patented by someone else, you have to pay royalties if
you want to use it in your own product. If you happen to have successfully
patented a product and find someone else using your invention, you can sue
him.
Every modem manufacturer has to pay royalties because modems use a
compression scheme invented by one pioneering modem company (don't know
which, though). If you start selling an MPEG compression device, you have
to pay royalties first. If you write an imaging software, you'll have to
check for permission on using the GIF format first.
Same with fractal compression. The guys who invented it patented it. They
sell this scheme as a product that you can use as part of your own
applications. You cannot distribute source code, you can only buy a library
used in your own software products.
So in fact, this is common practice.
Greetings,
Hanno
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