rothstein@bcse.Enet.DEC.com (Lee Rothstein, 603-881-0771) (10/13/89)
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 +---------------------------------------------------------+ | Lee Rothstein * UUCP: {purdue,ucbvax,hplabs,labrea,sun, | |att,pyramid,gryphon,angelo}!decwrl!bcse.dec.com!rothstein| | * Arpa/Uniform Address: rothstein@bcse.enet.dec.com | +---------------------------------------------------------+