If you were to log in, you'd be able to get more information on your fellow community member.
LizardTech isn't the only organization to take advantage of wavelet compression technology. See:ER Mapper is offering royalty free wavelet compression plugins and viewers. Of course to encode the images you need to buy ER Mapper, but the total solution is cheaper via ERM than MrSID. AT&T has DjVU which also has free plugins in addition to a free (unix) compressor, source code for the reference library and an SDK available.
For other closed-and-proprietary-systems-with-"free"-plugins (not an exhaustive list) see LuraTech, Compression Engines, Summus, Infinop Labs, and Pegasus Imaging. For some older resources & source code br...
Orson Scott Card captured this sad story perfectly in a short piece mirrored around the net as How Software Companies Die. If I recall correctly it was lifted from his novel Lost Boys. The nutshell summary is: To successfully domesticate programmers you must become a beekeeper. They can't be controlled directly, but if you move slowly and carefully you can harvest their honey (software).