RawTherapee: the newest open source raw photo editor

Posted Jan 14, 2010 0:56 UTC (Thu) by rahvin (guest, #16953)
In reply to: RawTherapee: the newest open source raw photo editor by freemars
Parent article: RawTherapee: the newest open source raw photo editor

They aren't blocked by law, they are blocked by patent. Photoshop is nearly a decade ahead of Gimp at the professional level. In fact Adobe Elements is probably better than most of what the Gimp can do. Lets be honest, Adobe has spent multiple billions developing Photoshop over more than 2 decades. It's going to be quite a while before FOSS software can match that kind of commercial investment and support. Until someone that wants to be a competitor to Pantone and Adobe that is developing FOSS software steps forward I personally don't think the gimp could ever catch photoshop. Photoshop has a near monopoly in commercial publishing and Pantone does have one in color. Combined that's something that's almost as difficult as the MS monopoly to crack.

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RawTherapee: the newest open source raw photo editor

Posted Jan 14, 2010 1:00 UTC (Thu) by martinfick (subscriber, #4455) [Link] (2 responses)

Please explain how a patent is not law?

RawTherapee: the newest open source raw photo editor

Posted Jan 21, 2010 1:30 UTC (Thu) by rahvin (guest, #16953) [Link] (1 responses)

Law means the government with it's endless ability to spend money and the police are involved. If it's a law it means violation means the guys with the badges can come put you in a cage.

Patent means civil court, the company has to prove that you violated a patent then can demand whatever royalty they want. The worst they can do is take money from you, violation will never end up with you in a cage.

If you don't understand the difference between a Law and a Civil violation you really don't understand the modern world or the US legal system.

RawTherapee: the newest open source raw photo editor

Posted Jan 21, 2010 1:53 UTC (Thu) by martinfick (subscriber, #4455) [Link]

This is bogus on two levels: One, you are conveniently focusing on enforcement and ignoring that patents in the US are laid out by the "highest law of the land" i.e. the constitution. Clearly, that makes it law.

But secondly, your attempt to claim that civil litigation cannot land you in jail is also plain false. If you loose a civil case and do not pay the penalties (or choose to not even appear in court in the first place), you will, in your words, still have: "the government with it's endless ability to spend money and the police are involved." and "it means violation means the guys with the badges can come put you in a cage."