Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Lempel-Ziv Implemenation
Message-ID: <56000@looking.on.ca>
Date: 3 Dec 89 18:50:32 GMT
References: <10690@venera.isi.edu> <1989Nov30.144334.7215@alzabo.uucp>
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 10
Class: discussion

There is no such thing as a public domain Lempel Ziv Welch.  The algorithm
is patented by Unisys.

Of course, Unisys doesn't seem to persue uses of it outside the hard disk
controller field, but they haven't officially lost the patent yet.

There is some common PD source code for LZW on Unix systems, but I haven't
the faintest idea of what a PD implementation of a patented algorithm means.
-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473


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