LSARC/2008/058 - dcraw

[Richard L. Hamilton]

> I agree that frequent updates to capture new formats
> are something we 
> should strive for.  Such a simple single source
> program could be a good 
> test case to clear some crud out of the plumbing of
> Sun's processes and 
> speed things up.
> 
> But I'm not convinced frequent updates absolutely
> crucial to the 
> usefulness of dcraw.  It still reads the formats for
> a majority of 
> existing cameras out there as well as Adobe's DNG
> (some of us have 
> cameras dating back 5 or 6 years which can write RAW
> format(s).   I'd be 
> interested in hearing about new cameras the latest
> dcraw doesn't support. 
> 
> What I'm more concerned about is the potential for
> stepping on someone 
> else's IP when companies such as Sony and Nikon seem
> to be intentionally 
> "encrypting" their white balance channel so you have
> to use their 
> software.  If there are IP risks or format change
> intended to break 3rd 
> party image readers, it might be safer to drop
> support for these brands 
> even though I'm sure it will lead to complaints.

While this alone may not be sufficient to satisfy legal responsibilities, I think
a relatively easy first step to answering them might be to _talk_to_the_author_,
not to mention some of the companies whose commercial products his web page
claims incorporate his code.

IANAL, of course.
 
 
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