comp.lang.idl-pvwave archive: archive

Home » Public Forums » archive » .sav format

Show: Today's Messages :: Show Polls :: Message Navigator
E-mail to friend

Re: .sav format [message #52530 is a reply to message #52298]

Mon, 05 February 2007 10:27

Haje Korth
Messages: 651
Registered: May 1997

Senior Member

JD,
one reason for guarding the format is obvious. The sav files allow an IDL
license to be embedded. If one were to figure out how this is done, one
could probably extract that license and inject it into any other sav files.
I don't use IDL run time licensing so I don't see much use in this. However
such action would clearly illegal and would warrant guarding the format. If
the variables were stored in a separate file format than code+license,
reverse engineering the variable save files wouldn't be such a delicate
issue. My guess is that storing variable data was not the primary reason for
creating the sav file format.

Cheers,
Haje

"JD Smith" <jdsmith@as.arizona.edu> wrote in message
news:pan.2007.02.05.17.58.05.570514@as.arizona.edu...
> On Sun, 04 Feb 2007 02:04:09 -0500, Craig Markwardt wrote:
>
>>
>> "mgalloy@gmail.com" <mgalloy@gmail.com> writes:
>>> On Jan 29, 1:49 pm, JD Smith <jdsm...@as.arizona.edu> wrote:
>>>> The license grants "the author of this software, and to all IDL users,
>>>> a license to use and redistribute this software in source or binary
>>>> form, subject to the following conditions", so they've already given
>>>> us the license (restrictive though it may be).
>>>
>>> To "use and redistribute this software" (i.e. CMSVLIB), but the
>>> original poster wanted documentation of the .sav format (presumably so
>>> they could write their own software).
>>
>> The documentation of the format is unencumbered by any license other
>> than Creative Commons.
>
> The "license" does seem to indicate that *anyone* needs permission to
> create a tool to read .SAV files, whether or not they have agreed to an
> EULA:
>
> "Non-RSI supplied software that reads or writes files in the IDL
> Save/Restore format must have a license from Research Systems
> explicitly granting the right to do so. In this case, the license
> will be included with the software for your inspection. Please
> report software that does not have such a license to
> Research Systems, Inc."
>
> They haven't yet wielded the DMCA hammer, but I don't doubt that they
> would if they felt it necessary. There is a reverse engineering clause
> in the DMCA, but I'm not sure to what degree it applies:
>
> http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/1201.html#f
>
> I for once don't see the point in so jealously guarding a format: it's a
> perfect way to ensure it never sees wide use.
>
> JD
>

Report message to a moderator

[Message index]

		.sav format By: ChristopherFlorio on Mon, 29 January 2007 04:50
		Re: .sav format By: JD Smith on Tue, 30 January 2007 09:58
		Re: .sav format By: Michael Galloy on Tue, 30 January 2007 09:40
		Re: .sav format By: Paolo Grigis on Tue, 30 January 2007 07:36
		Re: .sav format By: Haje Korth on Tue, 30 January 2007 05:21
		Re: .sav format By: Michael Galloy on Mon, 29 January 2007 13:01
		Re: .sav format By: Craig Markwardt on Sat, 03 February 2007 23:04
		Re: .sav format By: JD Smith on Mon, 29 January 2007 12:49
		Re: .sav format By: Haje Korth on Wed, 07 February 2007 05:10
		Re: .sav format By: JD Smith on Tue, 06 February 2007 15:45
		Re: .sav format By: JD Smith on Tue, 06 February 2007 15:44
		Re: .sav format By: Haje Korth on Tue, 06 February 2007 12:00
		Re: .sav format By: Craig Markwardt on Sun, 11 February 2007 13:53
		Re: .sav format By: Guillermo on Tue, 06 February 2007 11:04
		Re: .sav format By: David Fanning on Tue, 06 February 2007 07:42
		Re: .sav format By: Haje Korth on Mon, 05 February 2007 15:02
		Re: .sav format By: JD Smith on Mon, 05 February 2007 12:46
		Re: .sav format By: Haje Korth on Mon, 05 February 2007 10:27
		Re: .sav format By: JD Smith on Mon, 05 February 2007 09:58
		Re: .sav format By: Craig Markwardt on Sun, 11 February 2007 13:47

Previous Topic:	Arrays of Structures
Next Topic:	Looking for routines to do tidal analysis in IDL

-=] Back to Top [=-

[ Syndicate this forum (XML) ] [

] [

]

Current Time: Thu Oct 09 17:41:57 PDT 2025

Total time taken to generate the page: 0.72062 seconds