Gene Heskett wrote:
On Thursday 15 December 2005 20:40, Gabriel wrote:
Gene Heskett wrote:
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. Check it out:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html
I see, and many thanks for the link. The one thing it doesn't explain
however, is why the USTPO allowed 2 different entities to patent the
lzw algorythm. That is still a puzzlement to me, but what do I know.
They mention something:
Even if Unisys really did give permission for
free software to
generate GIFs, we would still have to deal with the IBM patent.
Both the IBM and the Unisys patents cover the same "invention"--the
LZW compression algorithm. (This could reflect an error on the
part of the US Patent and Trademark Office, which is famous for
incompetence and poor judgment.)
about the middle of the page. :-P
--
Cheers
--
Gabriel Parrondo
Linux User #404138
"In theory there's no difference between the theory and the practice. In the practice There is."
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