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Forgent Squeezing Money Out Of JPEG, Other Patents

Posted by simoniker on from the delightful dept.

deman1985 writes "Forbes reports that Forgent Networks, Inc., developer of scheduling software and holder of a number of technology patents, has settled with both Adobe and Sony for JPEG patent infringement and is going after numerous others to collect their fair share of royalties. The company also plans to go after PVR companies, including TiVo Inc, and MP3 player makers for other various patents they claim to hold. Sounds like more fun in the courts for everyone!" We previously reported on Forgent's JPEG patent shenanigans back in April.

8 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. LZW check, JPEG, erm... by trisweb · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just when we thought it was safe to put colored pixels on the internet again...

    --
    "!"
  2. A decision has been made... by laserbeak · · Score: 5, Funny

    They are putting a 1 cent per pixel toll on all JPEG images. All funds are directed towards global domination.

    1. Re:A decision has been made... by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Funny

      They are putting a 1 cent per pixel toll on all JPEG images.

      Ahh, so this is how you make a geek bankrupt from having too many girlfriends!

      Damn, it was a great side effect from avoiding real life girlfriends while it lasted.

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  3. Re:The company name says it all... by cliffy2000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Should I not trust SourceForge then? That's kinda antithetical to typical /. ideology, as far as I'm concerned.

  4. Two potential solutions... by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Funny
    • Start calling this "the porn patent" to see if they'll back off to avoid the bad PR.
    • Buy a bigger disk drive so you can convert your pron collection to PNG.
    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  5. That is not so simple by Pan+T.+Hose · · Score: 4, Funny

    Actually many of the GIFs were actually replaced with PNGs GIFs and PNGs support transparency (something JPEGs can't do) In any case many of had followed history and not only changed our GIFs, but also our JPEGs to PNG. PNG is a powerful open standard for image compression that is supported by our internet overlords.

    Changing every GIF to PNG on a site like Slashdot might have been easy even years ago when it was done, but some of us have quite a lot of important data stored in the JPEG format, which does not compress well with lossless PNG (e.g. anatomical photographs for scientific purposes). Just as an example:

    pth@ph9:28:/etc/X11$ du -sh ~/work/projects/.linuxx/.a/xxx/jpegs
    127G /home/pth/work/projects/.linuxx/.a/xxx/jpegs
    pth@ph9:28:/etc/X11$

    It is not a simple matter of:

    $ find ~ -iname '*.jpg' -exec convert {} {}.png ';'

    Well, actually it is, but it would take O(n) time (at least).

    --
    Sincerely,
    Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
    "Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
  6. Re:Run length coding? Patentable? Come on! by shish · · Score: 5, Funny
    I think Cave Man Og had prior art when he stopped saying "I have rock, rock, rock", and instead said "I have 3 rocks".

    But wait; this uses a computer, so it's an entirely new concept... never mind.

    --
    I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
  7. David Versus Goliath? by argent · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I believe this is just more proof that this David and Goliath story is just getting started," said Mannsbach, who said he holds close to 5 percent of Forgent's shares on behalf of clients.

    This would be some kind of "American McGee's David Vs Goliath", with a David hooked on heroin and using his sling to tie off when he shoots up... it's definitely some looking-glass version of the story, 'cos I remember the original David being the hero, not an opportunistic parasite.