Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!toddpw
From: toddpw@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)
Newsgroups: comp.compression
Subject: Re: looking for info on image compression
Message-ID: <1991Mar25.215830.5200@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 25 Mar 91 21:58:30 GMT
References: <5040@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> <5043@ns-mx.uiowa.edu>
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 21

jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu writes:

>(PS:  Does the use of Ziv-Lempel compression for GIF images mean that
>the question of patent rights for the Ziv-Lempel algorithm applies to
>GIF images?

It might. I know a few GIF program authors are worried about it, one to the
point of leaving it out of a commercial program. I'm almost about to release
a shareware GIF viewer myself and I was beginning to wonder.

What bugs me is that if somebody really does own all the rights to LZW and/or
GIF, they've done a piss-poor job protecting those rights and I hope they
don't get to screw everybody who went out and used the technology.

>(PPS:  I give away copies of my splay-tree compression code to anyone
>who asks for it.)

Sounds interesting -- could you give a copy in my direction?

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu