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

[Balcaen John]

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 This patent problem was revoked in Europe by the European Patent Office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