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JPEG Patent Could Impact The Gimp

Posted by timothy on from the notacon-falls-silent dept.

SeanAhern writes "A number of years ago, Forgent acquired a patent on some of the algorithms required for JPEG compression and decompression, and recently sued 31 big-name IHVs and ISVs. A Newsforge article gets into some of the details and asks whether open source tools like the Gimp could be liable as well. To add fuel to the fire, the Joint Photographic Experts Group's committee thinks that some of the patent may be invalid. The p2pnet.net story mentions that the FTC has some skepticism as well. We originally talked about this on Slashdot back in the summer of 2002."

9 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. In other news... by KingOfBLASH · · Score: 5, Funny

    Forgent receives financing deal from Baystar in order to pursue IP claims.

    1. Re:In other news... by metlin · · Score: 5, Funny

      And in related news, Darth McBride steps down from SCO to join Forgent as their new CEO.

      Following this, Forgent has issued licensing claims to Adobe, Pixar, Kodak and a few other companies.

      "Share a moment, share a life, for just $699!" is the new tagline for the company.

  2. Re:This is a very bad trend by pewterfish · · Score: 5, Funny

    WTF?! What revenues? The developers are getting donations and the like for the contributions they are making by working for free. This is plain ridiculous, people are putting in their free time to help develop software that will benefit everyone, and giving it away for free.

    So yeah, the GIMP should donate a percentage of their revenues. 15% of 0 is still 0 :)

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    :D > £/$
  3. By all means.... by Seraphim_72 · · Score: 3, Funny


    Lets see here, the Gimp's profit is $0, so lets be generous and give them, oh, say a full 20%. So lets see -

    0 * .2 = 0

    Would you like that in Check, Cash or PayPal?

    --
    Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
    1. Re:By all means.... by someguy456 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well since they would probably have a premier/business account, and it costs those accounts "2.2% + $0.30 USD to 2.9% + $0.30 USD" to receive funds, they would actually have to pay paypal 30 cents for every $0 donation we give them... *muhahaha*

      --
      Robert Bindler
      A Computer Science student's views on technology.
  4. Can't take "Gimp" seriously after Pulp Fiction by October_30th · · Score: 4, Funny

    Zed: Bring out the Gimp.
    Maynard: But the Gimp's sleeping.
    Zed: Well, I guess you better go and wake him up then.

    --
    The owls are not what they seem
  5. Oh, great. by RomulusNR · · Score: 4, Funny

    So after converting all our GIFs to JPGs in the middle of the 90s, now that the other patent has expired, we'll be converting all our JPGs back to GIFs.

    --
    Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
  6. Re:This is a very bad trend by arekq · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nope. Should be 15% of -10000 = -1500. :)

  7. Merge them all by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    SCO, Forgent, Amazon etc. should merge into one big dubious IP lawsuit conglomerate. They could call themselves Sueonics, One Click Lawsuits, Patent Breathing, etc.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.