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#372 not so free unrar
7-Zip is open source software. Most of the source code is under the GNU LGPL license. The unRAR code is under a mixed license: GNU LGPL + unRAR restrictions .
So unrar is not free and support was removed from Fedora ... so under Fedora I can't unrar files with peazip .
But unar ( http://unarchiver.c3.cx/commandline ) has appears and support unrar freely , can peazip use unar ? in future
Thanks,
As for what I know, both 7-Zip/p7zip and unarchiver implementation of unrar are entirely rewritten code based on unrar specifications and sources.
Rar author Eugene Roshal claims in unrar license that:
"The UnRAR sources may be used in any software to handle RAR
archives without limitations free of charge, but cannot be used
to re-create the RAR compression algorithm, which is proprietary"
This is the so called unrar restrictions.
In my opinion there are two opposite opinion on this:
1) you can stay on the safe, no-litigation side and assume unrar license claims always apply (as Igor Pavlov did for 7-Zip), and you have no way to get rid of unrar restrictions even if you entirely wrote the code - that's why 7-Zip/p7zip comes with "unrar restrictions" notice on unrar.so
2) you can say on some/many countries you can't patent algorithms or specifications, but only actual code, so if you re-wrote the code original IP restrictions does not apply - apparently the idea behind claim of unarchiver implementation being total free-software compliant
I've not found a definitive answer to this problem, and while adding support to unarchiver syntax remains a technically interesting possibility, it is probably not a real unambiguous solution to IP problems of supporting a proprietary format - only sticking to open formats would be a solution.
on this link [1] the reason why 7zip not support unrar .
[1] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=190277
p7zip_9.20.1/DOCS/unRarLicense.txt says that is freeware , not GPL (libre ) ...
Also could ask 7zip to move to unar
The issue is openly stated in 7-Zip (on which p7zip is based) license, http://www.7-zip.org/license.txt , anyway the sentence "developed using source code of unRAR program" is open to many interpretations - the original source can be just used to understand the optimal way to code something (anyway the resulting code will bring some lessen or not so lessen degrees of similitude), or it can be followed so strictly to have only minor modifications to get it wrapped and re-compiled in a a way it can be used in the new project.
This is why I think Pavlov assumed to stay on the safe side applying unRAR restrictions to its work rather than claiming (under what of the many IP laws of different countries a similar claim would stand ground?) he re-wrote it to the point to have an original work no longer bringing original IP restrictions.
OK, thanks for your time, I think I precipitated in open the report here, I'm trying packaging peazip for Fedora [1] ... .
I think we can close this ticket , I'll report the same in p7zip -> feature-requests
[1] https://github.com/sergiomb2/peazip
Thanks.
Release 5.8.0 allows users to prevent calls to non-free software and to handling non-free formats; the option can now also be hardcoded at compile time to ease the distribution/administration.