JPEG Patent Could Impact The Gimp

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."

Comments

Re:This is a very bad trend

[dfghjk]

The good old days of ignorance. This hasn't been true since any of us have been alive.

Giving away knowledge, or anything else, which is not yours to give *is* wrong and who says they didn't "spare" non-commercial entities? Did any OSS developers get put on notice?

IP rights serve a useful purpose in the economy. You may want to learn about that. The IP system may need some serious adjusting but you seem to be looking at this issue strictly as a consumer and not as a producer.

Open sourcing an implementation of a patented technique does not render the patent invalid.