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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."

6 of 632 comments (clear)

  1. Proprietary Image Format by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    What's the purpose? It's not like you can make money off it.

  2. Re:Oh yeah? by Rudeboy777 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Most people just pay $0 for Photoshop. I don't think patents matter much in the world of warez. Now who's offering XP Pro?!

    --

    From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc

  3. Why do I have the feeling.. by RubberChainsaw · · Score: 0, Troll

    ..that some poor schmuck web designer is about to get sacked.

    :)

    --
    I welcome our new 99% overlords.
  4. Re:Other Countries by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 0, Troll
    the counterpart Canadian patent expires July 7, 2004,
    Whoooa!!! Software patents aren't recognized in Canada!!!
  5. Re:Other Countries by Troed · · Score: 0, Troll
    I think I speak for America as a whole when I say, "yeah, well screw all those other countries."

    You do - and we laugh. The US economy needs those other countries, badly, and we're so fed up with you that we aren't going to support you anylonger.

    Lie to the world and the world strikes back.

    --
    it's in my head
  6. Ugly! by yuggler · · Score: 0, Troll

    How can anyone celebrate this as a liberation day? From now on the creators of the LGZ-algotihm will get no reimbursement from the people who use it. What this article really says is that nobody has the right to claim ownership to the things theyÂve created, and that these creators are evil if they seek payment for letting people use a portion of the creators minds.