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GIF Patent Prepares to Expire

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the all-skate-everyone-skate dept.

pajamacore writes "It's worth noting that 20 June 2003 is GIF Liberation Day, the day on which US Patent 4,558,302 expires. The patent describes the LZW compression algorithm used in .gif files. That said, maybe the prices of image editing applications will drop slightly when corporations don't have to pay fees to Unisys."

8 of 632 comments (clear)

  1. Or not... by VertigoAce · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That said, maybe the prices of image editing applications will drop slightly when corporations don't have to pay fees to Unisys.

    Or maybe they'll figure that the vast majority of their customers won't know and they'll pocket the savings.

    1. Re:Or not... by VJoseph · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But when you think about software like Photoshop, how much of the price really comes from paying royalties to Unisys? It can't really be large enough to have any real impact on the price.

    2. Re:Or not... by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or maybe they'll figure that the vast majority of their customers won't know and they'll pocket the savings.

      That would only work if there was a monopoly on image editing applications. Otherwise, if one company tried to pocket the savings, another would undercut that company and take all its customers.

    3. Re:Or not... by damiam · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For 99% of the work a non-professional would need to do, it is just as good as Photoshop. If you're a professional and you need those extra features, then you can afford Photoshop.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  2. Oh yeah? by neurostar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That said, maybe the prices of image editing applications will drop slightly when corporations don't have to pay fees to Unisys.

    Ha! Hahaha. Like they'll drop their prices...

    I bet your typical photoshop user has no idea that GIFs are patented. Which means Adobe will feel no pressure whatsoever to lower prices. Besides, people will still pay $500 for photoshop. And the price drop would be what? maybe $20 max?

    neurostar
    1. Re:Oh yeah? by f97tosc · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I bet your typical photoshop user has no idea that GIFs are patented. Which means Adobe will feel no pressure whatsoever to lower prices

      The question is not how well the end user understands the cost structure of producing software (of course they don't, and of course they have no clue that some patent expired.)

      The question is how competitive the market for these software products are. If it is competitive, prices will fall regardless of what the customer knows. Not out of the godness of the companies hearts, but because they will have to or lose business to the competition. Of course the opposite is true as well; everybody knows that CDs have a ridiculous markup but nothing is happening because that market is not competitive at all.

      Tor

    2. Re:Oh yeah? by Progman3K · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Look, the whole POINT of patents expiring is that they then pass into the public domain, to enrich us ALL and NO ONE has to be made to pay. It is indeed a benevolent idea.

      My company actually LEFT OUT .GIF support in our application, because we didn't want to force our clients to pay for the license.

      And now, we are going to ADD it and NOT increase our price for that.

      That's fair use of an expired patent.

      --
      I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
  3. Look what happened to other patent holders... by JRHelgeson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Way back in the day, there was a company called Wang. Wang made terminals and stuff for the old mainframes, they also invented and patented the Single Inline Memory Module, or SIMM memory and the SIMM slot. Yes, they were the ones that thought of putting memory on a stick and plugging it into the motherboard. Prior to that, all the computer memory came soldered onto the motherboard. So, if you bought memory back in the day when it cost $45/meg, $1 of that was going to Wang. Wang was making huge bucks off their patent. It was their cash cow. Then the patent expired... Their cash cow quit giving milk, and they shriveled up. They got bought for a song in January 1999 by a company called Getronics. I guess thats what happens when you fail to innovate. I wonder what'll happen to Unisys...?

    --
    Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.