[sldev] Linden Lab OpenJPEG contest on TopCoder

Teravus Ovares teravus at gmail.com
Sun Mar 15 14:43:09 PDT 2009


Maybe they are taking input heart in that the developers on this list
have stated that they want as little proprietary code dependencies as
possible?   One major dependency in the release code is kdu to which
the capital expense is somewhat high.
Pricing:

Ver 6.x New licensees:
Non commercial: $ 250
Commercial 25: upto 25 employees/cctors.$ 12,000
Commercial 100 : upto 100 employees/cctors $ 16,000
Commercial 250 : upto 250 employees/cctors $ 32,000
Commercial Enterprise: unlimited employees/cctors $ 48,000
Library licenses: $ 250
---------------------------------------------------------
Ver 6.x Upgrades:(from previous versions)
Non commercial including Library. Sent automatically $ 0
Commercial v5.x (any) to Commercial 25: $ 1,000
Multi-user non-commercial v5.x to Commercial 25: $ 10,900
Commercial v5.x (any) to Commercial 100: $ 5,000
Multi-user non-commercial v5.x to Commercial 100: $ 14,900
Commercial v5.x (for >100 employees) to Commercial 250:$ 10,000
Commercial v5.x (other) to Commercial 250: $ 21,000
Multi-user non-commercial v5.x to Commercial 250: $ 19,900
Commercial v5.x (for >100 employees) to commercial Enterprise: $ 26,000
Commercial v5.x (other) to Commercial Enterprise: $37,000

This, of course, is assuming that they're not using the speed pack
versions..

I think that to improve the state of openjpeg instead of purchasing an
upgrade would both reduce proprietary dependencies and reduce capital
expenditures in the long run at the same time.

As for venue, I guess the people who issued the contest there either
didn't know there was a group of developers on this list working on it
or didn't feel that the pool was large enough.

my 2c

Teravus



On 3/15/09, Vector Hastings <vector at leafpile.com> wrote:
> I'm guessing the motive is to make money. You only lose rights to your
> algorithm if you win money... so that would be your compensation. How
> they'll make money is their business. If they sell it to LL, then it may
> become part of an OpenSource project, in which case I'm just guessing that
> they want absolute rights in order to distribute it for free.
>
>
> Gold might not be so bad, what would bother me if I was in your shoes would
> be losing rights for the second prize purse. :-\
>
> You have my sympathy for the intellectual property angst involved.
>
> good luck,
>
> Vector
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sldev-bounces at lists.secondlife.com
> [mailto:sldev-bounces at lists.secondlife.com]On Behalf Of Callum Lerwick
> Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 4:16 PM
> To: sldev
> Subject: [sldev] Linden Lab OpenJPEG contest on TopCoder
>
>
> Is this for real?
>
> http://forums.topcoder.com/?module=Thread&threadID=634679&start=0&mc=1#10710
> 16
> http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=MatchDetails&rd=13772
> http://forums.topcoder.com/?module=ThreadList&forumID=526417&mc=121
>
> My googling and searching of mailing lists and LL blogs reveals no
> mention of TopCoder at all, that I can find. Is LL really behind this?
> Only other thing I can find is this:
>
> http://studio.topcoder.com/?module=ViewContestDetails&ct=1000525
>
> I only found out about it because I have someone emailing me for tips.
> This treads directly on my territory and I'm going to be very annoyed if
> people are winning thousands of dollars for something I've been pouring
> hundreds of man hours into over the past two years without any such
> direct compensation.
>
> Also the rules are very concerning:
>
> http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=MatchRules&rd=13772
>
> "If TopCoder compensates you for your submission, then you agree to
> irrevocably and unconditionally transfer and assign to TopCoder all
> right, title and interest you have, may have or acquire in, such
> submission"
>
> "You further agree that any and all works of authorship created,
> authored or developed by you hereunder which TopCoder compensates you
> for shall be deemed to be "works made for hire" within the meaning of
> the United States Copyright Law and, as such, all rights therein
> including copyright shall belong solely and exclusively to TopCoder from
> the time of their creation."
>
> Or in short "You sign over your soul to TopCoder" which makes me
> hesitant to participate, and makes me question the motives of those
> behind the contest. This is very much the opposite of open
> collaboration.
>
> So, seriously WTF? Does this all sound fair to you? Because I'm sure
> feeling cheated.
>
>
> Incidentally I recently posted some patches that give a 30-35% speedup
> of the decoder:
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/openjpeg/browse_thread/thread/4d27b0eaeba39c8
> a
>
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