On Thursday 15 December 2005 19:29, Gabriel wrote:
Carl Fink wrote:
On Wed, Dec 14, 2005 at 02:34:31PM -0800, Steve Lamb wrote:
IIRC one of the algorithms that can be used in zip is lzw which
is (or was) patented.
The patent expired in 2003.
http://www.sslug.dk/patent/lzwunisys.html
The license was owned by Unisys and IBM. The one expired in 2003 was
the Unisys license. The IBM license expires on 08/11/2006 (in the
USA). It's the same algorithm used on GIF.
'scuse me? If the unisys patent expired in 2003, then either the USTPO
screwed up again (what else is new?) in issueing the same patent to
IBM, or their 'license' is not in fact anything to do with a patent,
and should be absolutely moot now that the Unisys patent has expired,
all over the planet I believe. Any legal manuevering(sp) should be
entirely between IBM & Unisys. And likely a waste of time & shyster
fees.
If not, and IBM does have a legal claim on the lzw algorythm, please
cite some links so that we can become better educated.
OK, I said that 'cause I remind something I red about a year ago. It
was in the GNU Project Page, where they explain why there's no GIFs on
their pages. I just checked and it was last updated on 2005/10/31
17:33:26.