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Why the lord of the rings allusion??? http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Orthanc
Short version: because "palantír" was taken
So they named it after the tower where Saruman -- the most powerful guy in the world who lost it and went over to the dark side -- lived because the name of the thing that helped drive him insane was taken.

Edit: more pedantry.

Yes, that's right. Palantír was a registered trademark, and we have been invited to rename the project.
I thought the Tolkien family was famously aggressive about enforcing JRR's copyrights.

I am surprised that Palantir Technologies hasn't received a C&D from the Estate; though perhaps the copyrights don't extend that far? Is that a risk for this project?

Regardless, this sounds like software that could be very useful for some of the work I'm involved in. Exciting to see the positive review here. Will have to check it out.

To the best of my knowledge, our software has used the name "Orthanc" for about 2 years, so this should establish prior use. As a consequence, I think that this should not become a risk to the project... but I'm not a lawyer ;)

Thank for your interest! Do not hesitate to give feedback and to follow the community on Twitter and Facebook.

Hi jodogne. I just started using Orthanc in a simple project to translate and organize images between a clinical PACS system and a research XNAT instance. It's been an absolute breeze to use.

The REST interface is wonderful, especially when compared to the frustrating world of XNAT. This project is extremely well done. Congrats! I'm looking forward to using it more. If an XNAT-like system were built on top of this, the world would be a better place, in my opinion. Thanks for such a great piece of software!

Hi merky!

I was very glad to read your review. This is good to see that our approach is useful to others and that the innovative aspect of Orthanc is acknowledged. Thanks and do not hesitate to get in touch with us (e.g. on Facebook or Twitter)!

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