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JPEG Patent Challenged
ChocLinux writes "The Public Patent Foundation has filed a request at the US Patent Office to revoke Compression Labs' data compression patent, which it is reportedly using to harrass anyone that implements the JPEG format. 'CLI's aggressive assertion of the '672 patent is causing substantial public harm by threatening this international standard on which the public relies,' says Pubpat in its filing."
Unless they have prior art this is much sound and fury signifying nothing.
Didn't the enforcement of the GIF patent lead to the development of the (generally better, in my experience) PNG format? If we suddenly can use JPGs freely, then somebody will come out with another, possibly better, format for everyone to use.
JPEGs aren't your only option. I try to use PNGs for everything. Unlike JPEGs, PNGs can be lossless, meaning that they don't lose quality each time you save them. Internet Explorer, Mozilla, heck just about every web browser except lynx can display them just fine. Sure, they tend to be a bit larger than JPEGs, but I figure the gain in quality is often worth it.
What are you eating? isItVeg?.
What's the point of patents if anyone can get them overturned? Not saying i'm for software patents, but sometimes people just go too far.
Linux is to the internet as Duct Tape is to the Universe.