Well, that passed without much fanfare!
Given the amount of kerfuffle that Compuserve and Unisys caused back in the mid-90s when they started asking people to license what was, by then, one of the most popular file formats in IP-space, and the current frenzy surrounding Software Patents in Europe [petition here] and EFF's current efforts to bust illegitimate US patent applications I thought I might have seen a little more interest in the worldwide expiry of the Unisys LZW patent.
If anyone is interested, The GIF Controversy: A Software Developer's Perspective provides a detailed history. I guess that this really only affects developers since Unisys was forced to back off its initial claims re. GIF data files, so I'm glad to see that some in the Open Source fraternity have taken note.
Posted by lankyphil at July 7, 2004 08:20 PM | TrackBack