Bug#791399: [cimg] Non free image lenna

Andreas Tille andreas at an3as.eu
Sat Jul 4 19:51:04 UTC 2015


Hi David,

On Sat, Jul 04, 2015 at 09:18:43PM +0200, David Tschumperlé wrote:
> There are other images distributed within the CImg packages that are not
> free but also "distributable", so I'm a bit surprised the bug report
> focuses only on the Lena image.

I guess the only reason why the bug report is only about this image is
that nobody detected the other images.

> The stereo portrait and the parrot image are not free either (they are my
> own pictures).

Would you consider a free license for these images?

> I don't think there any current issues about the images distributed in the
> CImg package.

>From a Debian point of view we are not allowed to include non-free
images.  If these images would remain inside the package the whole
package would be moved to non-free (at best).

> Moreover, having the Lena image has several advantages. First, it gives a
> clues about what kind of community the library is targeting (algorithmic of
> image processing).
> The lena image has a strong identity in this community. Second, this is the
> most classical image used for comparing results of several algorithms (like
> denoising algorithms),
> some of they being a part of the CImg features. So, it's interesting to
> have it to get comparative results with state of the art algorithms (try to
> get the PSNR value of a denoising
> algorithm for any other image in a paper, and tell me what image you can
> pick (apart from the 'cameraman' image, which honestly sucks)).

I will not question your arguments about the sense of those images.
There is simply the fact that we are not allowed to ship non-free images
in Debian main.  There might be an option to maintain an additional
package cimg-data or cimg-examples in Debian non-free.  Could you
specify all images which are not free (and can not be released under a
free license).

> About the fact it illustrated the sexism in sciences, this is probably a
> joke (at least I hope so).

I will not judge about this since the file in question can not be
distributed because of the license which is a harder fact than sexism.

> As you guess, I have no plans to remove it.

You are free to keep it inside cimg - but I need to remove it from the
Debian package if cimg itself should stay in Debian main.   That's no
matter of personal opinion but this are the rules Debian is build upon:
We only deliver free code and data.

Kind regards and thanks for your quick reply

      Andreas.

-- 
http://fam-tille.de



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