Re: filmscanners: Vuescan: "device RGB"

["Richard N. Moyer" <dickmoyer@mail.earthlink.net>]

This is rapidly treading way off topic. Into a discussion of what is 
copywritable and what is not. The bottom line is "The PhotoCDÝ" 
system, all the profiles, software, etc. in its entirely - is not 
free to the public. And, no matter what some "knockoff" software 
vendors may be doing, or what they would like you to believe they are 
doing, there is no way way that "I can cut my own Photo CD disk", 
that conform to the PCD standard. Without paying Kodak something. 
Relaxing (by Kodak) does not translate into "freedom to". 
Understanding what the PCD packet is does not constitute "freedom" 
and "ability" to duplicate what the fee paying licensee service 
providers now do. It ain't the same, no matter how you dress it up 
with words. Nobody has come forth to lucidly explain what can and 
can't be done by wannabe software vendors, or exactly what "critical" 
items Kodak has decided to protect, so that wannabe PCD users will 
not have the ability to undermine the licensees. Of course, all of 
this implicitly assumes that people abide by the laws. If not, all 
bets are off.

If you develop a profile that does something special with "white 
light", I see no reason why you shouldn't copyright that development, 
as intellectual property. We are not talking about simplistic filter, 
although having spent a whole career in a large technical company 
with thorny technology issues, I would indicate to you that if you 
developed a unique filter, using a special material substance, you 
have the perfect right to patent that filter, citing the "unique and 
unexpected attributes" of such an item.

  Your darn right Kodak can copyright "that space".

Dick
>Richard,
>
>From my reading of info on Vuescan, it does indeed use the PCD 
>colorspace, and I don't think any violation of anything is 
>occurring. The color space of PCD could easily include all of the 
>film types you speak of, regardless of a bias (filter) used during 
>the scanning process.  Further, Kodak does use a universal "filter" 
>for many of the films, and often labs only use that 
>filter/calibration, unless specifically asked otherwise.  But these 
>do not determine color space, they determine interpretation of the 
>color values within the image.
>
>Regarding ownership of the PCD color space, it would be a bit like 
>saying Kodak owns the rights to the proper calibration to filter out 
>the dye base colors on one of their print films, or better yet, that 
>they own the color red, for instance.  Since all color spaces are a 
>subset of white light, maybe I'll patent white light and claim 
>ownership of all of them.
>
>You are wrong about the Kodak Scanner situation as well (they can be 
>bought outright), and about access to programs that write to PCD 
>format.
>
>What is proprietary is not the scanning process, but the software 
>and algorithms which create the file packet and the disk formatting.
>
>Art