JPEG: Time to pay up!!!

IIRC didn't Compuserve try the same thing with GIF format?

~What a bunch of crap...somebody's just looking to get rich(er)!!

Actually it is within their legal right. Regardless of what we think is ethical or moral, they have the option to enforce something they own.

This patent will run out in 2004. So most of the net should be safe. If you read who they are speaking to about this patent, you will find it is hardware based. The reason for this is simple econimics. Software can be changed very easily and hence little money to be gained. Hardware can't be changed easily. Sony paid them now for a small amount to avoid a possible larger settlement when the patent holds up in court. I doubt prior art will play a major roll in this court case. And the argument of "They should have enforced this earlier" will also not hold up since a new company acquired this IP/Patent and they are within the time table of enforcement.

Hmmm, maybe everyone should switch to .png format?

Sure thing... check is in the mail.

grrr... "They only started delving into it a year and half ago when the new management team came in."
Why does it not surprise me that this company is in Texas...

This will fail (in the aggregate) for the same reasons we discussed wincustomize charging fees. Other equally viable options exist in abundance, such as .png, rendering the service that .jpg formats provides, displaying images, abundant. On top of that, all those other formats are free.

Skull is correct that they are going after hardware manufacturers specifically, and they just might get a few. But in the big picture, this will be less than a blip in the marketplace.

It happened to the GIF format too. It changes little or nothing to the end user. In the GIF case, it's the software companies that have to pay a royalty for using the GIF format.

If you read into the history of the issue, one company holds a patent on the JPEG technology, but there is also a wealth of information (legally known as "prior art") showing that the JPEG standard was pretty well formulated and publicly available BEFORE the patent.

They may be able to bully some companies into ponying up money, but there's also a good chance that if they take it to court in the U.S., they just might lose.

Hiddenatnight's probably right...*blip*.

Not exactly true, Paxx, the end user ends up suffering too. Unisys, the holders of the GIF patent (or rather, the patent on a compression algorithm used in the format) charges software companies an outrageous amount for a GIF license. The end result is that most shareware companies simply cannot afford to pay up, so they choose not to provide GIF support - a shame, since that is basically the only format that allows animated graphics and has thousands of nice animations freely available on the web. The user thus ends up losing the opportunity to use these animations on that company's applications.

Of course, some other companies will choose to support the format without even asking Unisys for a license - however, they do so at their own peril and will be in deep trouble if caught.

What I find deeply un-ethical about the whole issue is that the patent holders first wait secretly for a specific format to become very popular (which only happens because it is free) and only then try to enforce their patents.

Jorge Coelho
NextSTART 2.81 - A user interface you can actually use!
http://www.winstep.net - Winstep Software Technologies
IRC Chat: #winstep on AustNet

DavidK wrote:
"Why does it not surprise me that this company is in Texas... "

What does this have to do with anything? I'm sure there are quite a few Texan who visit this site (I am one) that will take offense to your statement.

I really can't believe that they would be so bold as to really try to enforce this on any large scale. I 2 years it won't make any difference.

C-Rat...I'm from Texas too. My first reaction was to . I don't think he meant that as a serious jab. Right DavidK

Indeed, GIF has been a real problem. Stardock hasn't created a program called Object Navigator because it can't realistically do one without supporting GIF. But GIF has a licensing fee PER user so we can't just create it and make it part of Object Desktop.

So if they are able to do this, it will have an impact.

RAMBUS

Sorry, no offense to any proud and true Texan was intended (unless you're a top level exec in a corporation that uses political influence or litigation to unethically raise the cost of an entrenched or necessary service for the goal of gluttonous personal wealth - even at the expense of the corporation itself as well as the general public).

... read the news

The JPG technology is essentially public domain by now. I have programs that use JPG tech, and I obviously will not pay extra to use what I have on my computer for my purposes. If they wanted to keep it for themselves and sell it, then they should have done so in the begining.

DavidK:

At one time people thought GIF was essentially public domain, too.

OTOH, time is more on our side this time around, with only two years left on the patent.

I'd much rather use .png anyways...the anti-aliasing, transparencies and drop shadows are the way that images should be done in this day and age. With the speed of Internet users rising, why should we be restricting ourself to such an old format based on users with 14.4 and 28.8 modems?

William Neal
CyberScript.NET

Not to mention the fact that, unlike JPEG, PNG is lossless.

Essentially every single car on the planet has intermittent wipers fitted as standard.

Years ago, a private individual inventor came up with the idea, took it to GM, who said 'no thanks', but a few years later, out came GM cars with the system.
Inventor sat on his hands for years...
THEN filed his suit......and won.....I think it was 20c for each and every GM car manufactured with the wiper system....set a precedent, too....all those other Companies...from Rolls Royce to VW....

Needless to say, he's quite seriously rich now, but back then he'd probably get a few hundred for the idea..

LONG LIVE PNG!!!!

I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could.

I'm keeping my jpg's for my camera.. tell em to eat my shorts !