>  >Is there any interest in a TIFF reader plugin? I was reviewing code
>>I've lying about today and was reflecting on a tiff library I've got
>>and don't those digital cameras dump TIFF in our direction?
>
>John -
>
>Is anyone taking a look at the legal issues with stuff like this?  I'm
>concerned because upon a quick examination, the MPEG stuff you posted
>appears to be covered by the GPL.  I don't know which TIFF library you're
>using - Sam Leffler's libtiff code appears to be relatively unencumbered -
>but it inevitably has the nasty problem of violating the Unisys LZW patent.
>Of course, Squeak's already doing that by having a GIF reader.


Yes the C code is covered by GPL, the Smalltalk code is covered by 
the Squeak-L. That is pointed out up front on my web page.

I think you've noticed the MPEG stuff was not shoved into the general 
update stream because of the GPL issue, so yes people are watching 
this issue. However I will take it upon myself to release a DLL that 
does not use the GPL stuff, rather it is based on the original MPEG 
reference edition but will only do video, not audio and runs quite a 
bit slower. (audio does lurk on my machine but the code requires 
much! more work). I should point out there is debate if you  *can* 
even do MPEG decoding without violating an patent or two.

I have also resent a request to the author of the libmpeg3 stuff to 
consider granting us a GNU lesser general public license (the new 
name for the library-GPL license) for his code. My understanding is 
that it is allowable for us to link that type of library into Squeak 
as part of the base? Correct me if I'm wrong.

As for the tiff stuff yes this is Sam Leffler's tiff code with 
changes etc to make it work on the macintosh. It does contain the LZW 
code, but it is by default #defined out and must be explicitly turned 
on and recompiled. Unless you do that you can't decode LZW compressed 
libraries and aren't in violation of the Unisys patent. That doesn't 
prevent someone from downloading the source and recompiling to turn 
that feature on.

>
>Not trying to rain on the parade, but as mentioned by several people
>several times, Squeak can be put in jeopardy through lax attention to this
>sort of thing.  My personal approach has been to reimplement as much as
>possible in Smalltalk to mitigate licensing issues, even at the cost of the
>extra work (ex. PNG, MD5, DES, AES, etc).
>
>The patent issue, however, is a bullet of a different caliber.
>
>-- Duane

-- 
--
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John M. McIntosh <johnmci at smalltalkconsulting.com> 1-800-477-2659
Corporate Smalltalk Consulting Ltd.  http://www.smalltalkconsulting.com
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Custom Macintosh programming & various Smalltalk dialects
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