[Mageia-dev] About panotools patent problem (and other problematic rpms)

Fri Feb 18 13:26:16 CET 2011

Le vendredi 18 février 2011 06:13:07, Philippe DIDIER a écrit :
+> Hi everybody !
+> Just seen that mikala added panotools in the repository . (some
+> algorythms library to build panoramic photographs)
+> Very happy with this ! (thanks a lot...)
+> 
+> That's one of the first patent problems we may encounter :
+> 
+> Long time ago, iPIX, a company from USA muliplied patent lawsuit against
+> these free algorythms inventor and photographers using them (this
+> company is now dead because of bankruptcy but the patent problem is
+> still live... )
+> 
+> This patent problem was revoked in Europe by the European Patent Office
+> but is still valid in USA and perhaps other countries (Japan...)
+> 
+> There's a limitation to its use if you are in a country where the patent
+> problem exists !
+> For this reason : Mandriva proposed a rpm limited to a 160° fov (field
+> of view) support but we could find in PLF a rpm without limitation (up
+> to 360°...).
+> The spec was written to build differently for mandriva repo and plf
+> repo... and this is the one imported... but it allows to build only a
+> limited rpm (as it is not used with plf buildsystem)...
+
+I imported like this explicity due to that in fact so we can take a decision 
+to know if we should get it up to 360°.
+If i read correctly fedora still ship it without 360° support ( 
+http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/gitweb/?p=libpano13.git;a=commit;h=8d37dc9492f4ec51bbe1f88e7db850cf5db8fc7e 
+)
+
+-- 
+Balcaen John
+