libjpeg compiled without arithmetic coding support

[Mechanical snail]

Binary package hint: libjpeg8

[Maverick]
AC had previously been omitted because it was covered by patents, which have subsequently expired. It has been enabled in the latest Fedora version (using libjpeg-turbo).
At the least, read support for arithmetic-coded JPEGs should be enabled.

Example:
$ wget http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Rabbit_in_montana.jpg
[blah blah]
$ jpegtran -optimize -arithmetic ./Rabbit_in_montana.jpg > out.jpg
Requested feature was omitted at compile time

[Tom Gall (tom-gall)]

This is present in the libjpeg-turbo8-progs in precise.

tgall@mars:~$ jpegtran -optimize -arithmetic libjpeg8/testimages/nightshot_iso_100_444_Q95.jpg > out.jpg
Requested feature was omitted at compile time

[Tom Gall (tom-gall)]

Is there a definitive analysis somewhere that has verified all the patents involved in this space have indeed passed into the public domain world wide?

I personally haven't see anyone assert they have a complete list of all the patents involved. Based on that, I don't believe we can take action on this currently. I appreciate that Fedora have perhaps turned this on but just because they haven't doesn't mean we should unless we can validate that we indeed don't have a patent issue here.

The support for arithmetic is however contained in the code, it's just not compiled in. If it's important to you, you can recompile the package from source added at configure time --with-arith-enc && --with-arith-dec or edit debian/rules (approx line 35)

 override_dh_auto_configure:
      dh_auto_configure -v -- --with-jpeg8 CFLAGS="$(CFLAGS)"

change to:

 dh_auto_configure -v -- --with-jpeg8 --with-arith-enc --with-arith-dec CFLAGS="$(CFLAGS)"

and then rebuild the package.

[Mechanical snail (replicator-snail)]

In the US, patents last at most 20 years under current law (and at the time, I believe it was shorter, 17 years). See http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/35/154.html (the current law), and page 146 of the old law, http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/old/E5R14_L.pdf . If Wikipedia is to be believed, JPEG's design was complete by 1990, any patents covering JPEG would either certainly have expired by 2010, probably earlier, or would be bogus due to prior art.

I believe it's also 20 years in the EU and Japan and most other countries.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[NaSH (lenashou)]

still not compiled with arithmetic coding on trusty