art yerkes wrote:
There's a lot of FUD going on here.
I agree wholeheartedly.
For one thing, our SEH method is not patented.
For another thing, the patent appears to be this:
<== The JPEG spec defines two different "back end" modules for the final output of compressed data: either Huffman coding or arithmetic coding is allowed. The choice has no impact on image quality, but arithmetic coding usually produces a smaller compressed file. On typical images, arithmetic coding produces a file 5 to 10 percent smaller than Huffman coding. (All the file-size numbers previously cited are for Huffman coding.)
Unfortunately, the particular variant of arithmetic coding specified by the JPEG standard is subject to patents owned by IBM, AT&T, and Mitsubishi. Thus *you cannot legally use JPEG arithmetic coding* unless you obtain licenses from these companies. (Patent law's "experimental use" exception allows people to test a patented method in the context of scientific research, but any commercial or routine personal use is infringement.)
I recommend that people not use JPEG arithmetic coding; the space savings isn't great enough to justify the potential legal hassles. In particular, arithmetic coding *should not* be used for any images to be exchanged on the Internet. Even if you don't care about US patent law, other folks do. /==>
I believe that something like that is easily commented out, and does not require a removal of the entire lib. *sings the FUD song*
mf