ETC eos and Strand .ssf files

[JMC]

The .ssf file format if proprietry to Strand, and protected by copyright, therefore, if eos can indeed read ssf's, they're infringing Strand's copyright!

 

This has been suggested before regarding many other consoles... never happened though!

 

Unless, of course, they have come to some licensing deal, which I think would be very unlikely!

[obsoperator]

Well, here's the data sheet:

 

http://www.etcconnect.com/docs/docs_downlo...shts/Eos_vB.pdf

 

and it includes this text:

 

"Show Import from Obsession, Expression, Emphasis, Congo, Strand 500 and ASCII"

 

I certainly don't know the legalities (IANAL), but it seems to me that a buyer or software downloader might implicitly agree to a boilerplate statement like " ... agree not to copy, disassemble, reverse-engineer, or otherwise ...". But if you simply take someone's show file from a floppy or USB Stick, and reverse-engineer the file format, what hold do they have over you?

 

Sure, if you made your new light board write .SSF, they'd have a valid case. Perhaps you know that Chinese industries are regularly accused of buying and disassembling turbines, cars, and electronics, for the purpose of knocking them off.

 

There are ways to be proprietary. I managed to reverse-engineer the Obsession I show format, but because the Obsession II show files are compressed, I have been unable to read them directly. I suspect it's a conventional compression scheme, but because the normal "open" tags are not included, I can't identify it. When I translate an Obsession II show to ASCII, I have to read a print file and parse it. It's interesting that most of the Microsoft Office file formats are pretty much public, and that there's talk of M$ being forced to adopt an open standard for the next generation of Office files.

[Neil Frazer]

We have been through this before with the congo and in that case you needed to convert to ascii first with showport.

You loose the FX data in the transfer.

 

I expect it will be the same with the EOS but if it will read ssf directly then fair play to ETC.

[dbuckley]

But if you simply take someone's show file from a floppy or USB Stick, and reverse-engineer the file format, what hold do they have over you?

More than that, reverse engineering is specifically allowed under UK law, for exactly such circumstances as this, where you need to interface with or be compatible with "something". However, you do have to ask the owner of the "thing" you need to interface with or be compatible with for the info you need first. If they refuse to hand over the info you need (which they are perfectly entitled so to do) then you can reverse engineer away.

 

Memory is fading now, but I don't think you are allowed to publish what you find out, only use it in your own endeavours.

[Tomo]

We have been through this before with the congo and in that case you needed to convert to ascii first with showport.

This is indeed the case - to import a Strand .ssf showfile into Eos you need to run it through Strand Showport first to get a USITT ASCII file.

 

I've passed your concerns onto the relevant people to get this made clearer on the datasheet.

[gareth]

So the spec sheet, when it says "Show import from ... Strand 500" is not really telling the truth, is it? The implication of that statement is that an Eos user can take a Strand 500 showfile and load it into an Eos. In reality, it's actually only show import from ASCII, and one needs to convert the 500 show file away from its native format before importing it into the Eos.

 

That notwithstanding, I'm very much looking forward to taking a look at the Eos at some point - on paper it looks like a fantastic piece of kit.

 

 

Edit : sorry, Tomo, I've just seen your comment about getting the spec sheet changed to more accurately reflect the Eos' showfile import capabilities. It's always best to be honest about these things from the outset, isn't it! :)