Re: rar compressor isn't even opensource

¿ <°º)))>< wrote:
[snip]



WinRAR provides Free decompressors (UnRAR) for most systems here:
http://www.rarlab.com/rar_add.htm

eg: http://www.rarlab.com/rar/TDFUnRar.zip http://www.rarlab.com/rar/UnRAR-3.3.6-tru64-src_bin.tar.bz2 http://www.rarlab.com/rar/UnRARDLL.exe http://www.rarlab.com/rar/UnRar30MacOSX.tgz http://www.rarlab.com/rar/UnRarOCX.rar http://www.rarlab.com/rar/UnrarGUI.zip http://www.rarlab.com/rar/rcvtw32.rar http://www.rarlab.com/rar/solaris8-sparc-unrar-3.3.tar.gz http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-3.4-openbsd.tar.gz http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-3.4.3-aix.gz http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-3.4.3-ppc-amigaos-bin.lha http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-3.4.3-solaris10-sparc.gz http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-3.4.3-x86-public.qpr http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-3.5.1-QNX4.gz http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-3.5.3-i486-1.tgz http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-3.51-macosx-universal.bz2 http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-NetBSD-3.2.1.gz http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-arm.tar.bz2 http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-hpux.tar.gz http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-ia64.zip http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-irix63o32-3.30b1.bz2 http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-irix65-3.10.gz http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-linux-x64.gz http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-sol-intel.gz http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar-x64.zip http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar3.10b3_BeOS.zip http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar343.zip http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar_Alpha.zip http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar_lnx_ppc.bz2 http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar_v3.20-AmigaOS_68k.lha http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar_v3.20-AmigaOS_PPC.lha http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar_v3.20-MorphOS.lha http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar_vms_alpha-3.4.3.zip http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrar_vms_vax-3.4.3.zip http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrarsrc-3.5.4.tar.gz http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrarw32.exe http://www.rarlab.com/rar/urar336d.zip

And, from the look of the names, they are provided *as source*, great. This leaves one of my questions unanswered: is the rar *format* patented or otherwise encumbered, or just the particular compressor from RARLAB? In other words is it possible and legal to write an alternative compressor? (Note that I am certainly not considering that worthwhile; just trying to clarify the legal situtation).


(links extracted with paessler site inspector handy free demo:
http://www.paessler.com/psi/features )

Latest WinRAR archiver available here:
http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

- Regards. -- I have no affiliation with any of the above.




--
Michel Bardiaux
R&D Director
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F +32 [0] 2 790 29 02
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