Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Suddenly a JPEG Patent and Licensing Fee

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the where-have-I-heard-this-before. dept.

Michael Long writes "Forgent Networks (www.forgentnetworks.com) has announced that it owns the software patent on JPEG compression technology, and has stated that it is "in contact" with computer, software, camera, and other digital imaging product manufacturers regarding licensing terms. This ambush of the digitial imaging industry will probably stand as the worst public relations nightmare a company can inflict upon itself."

1 of 1,122 comments (clear)

  1. Not everything, sadly by PhysicsGenius · · Score: 1, Troll
    The scientific establishment is going to be hard hit by this development. All our charts and graphs from 1950 onward will have to be converted to some non-patented format of course, but that's hardly the biggest problem. Every data capture device (synchrotrons, telescopes, freaking Hubble even) has JPEG tech hardcoded right into it. The American public is going to get reamed by the cost of converting all the existing images and hardware.

    This will be known as the Day that Science Died.