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From: rothstein@bcse.Enet.DEC.com (Lee Rothstein, 603-881-0771)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d,sci.crypt
Subject: Re: rumor: LZW patented by Unisys
Message-ID: <942@mountn.dec.com>
Date: 12 Oct 89 20:08:34 GMT
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In article <10166@xanth.cs.odu.edu>, rlb@cs.odu.edu (Robert L.
Bailey) writes...

>In article <1989Oct9.205917.13123@attdso.att.com>
>tim@attdso.att.com (Tim J Ihde) writes:

>>According to PC-Week's "Spencer Katt" article of October 2, the
>>LZW data compression algorithm is patented by Unisys.  Has
>>anybody heard anything about this?  Things could get messy if
>>this is true . . .

>The LZW compression algorithm was indeed developed by Terry A.
>Welch of the Sperry Research Center, Sudbury, Massachusetts. 
>(Sperry & Burroughs later merged to form UNISYS).  The algorithm
>was published in the IEEE Computer journal (June 1984).  As I
>understand it, the algorithm itself is not patented
..
>However, since the algorithm
>was published in an academic journal, it should not preclude
>anyone from developing their own implementation of the LZW
>algorithm (i.e. ARC, PKARC, Unix Compress, etc.).   Generally
>speaking, information that is published in the academic journals
>is made available to the public to benefit and advance the cause
>of research; it usually carries no restrictions on its usage.

>Bob Bailey
>Unisys Defense Systems
..

If academically published algorithms are available for "open"
implementation then why/how has RSA held public key cryptography
"hostage."

Just curious.

Lee
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