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Google not supporting open-standard ?
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| spamharvestor@gmail.com 2005-09-28, 3:59 am |
| Please don't flame me for cross-posting, but I need to point this out
to all that support the idea of open-standard and/or open-source.
If you go to this page:
http://print.google.com/support/pub...&hl=en_US#17861
and then scroll down to "Design Policy:" - use the "find" function on
your browser to help, if you must - and you will find that of all
people, google, the company that is supposed to be so kewl, is
requiring book publishers to use either jpeg or gif format to submit
their logo.
I mean, both gif and jpeg formats are famous for their
patents-holder-lawsuit, right ?
And I just wonder if google ever heard of file format such as PNG ?
Man, this really makes me wonder if the PNG format will ever survive or
not.
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| spamharvestor@gmail.com wrote:
> Please don't flame me for cross-posting, but I need to point this out
> to all that support the idea of open-standard and/or open-source.
>
> If you go to this page:
> http://print.google.com/support/publisher/bin
index.py?fulldump=1&hl=en_US#17861
>
> and then scroll down to "Design Policy:" - use the "find" function on
> your browser to help, if you must - and you will find that of all
> people, google, the company that is supposed to be so kewl, is
> requiring book publishers to use either jpeg or gif format to submit
> their logo.
>
> I mean, both gif and jpeg formats are famous for their
> patents-holder-lawsuit, right ?
>
> And I just wonder if google ever heard of file format such as PNG ?
>
> Man, this really makes me wonder if the PNG format will ever survive or
> not.
There is now no patent on GIF format.
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| r.e.ballard@usa.net 2005-09-28, 8:07 am |
| GIF used the Limpel-Ziv-Welsh compression algorythm, which was patented
in 1985 based on the fact that the same algorythm had also been
implemented in hardware only.
The LZW patent has expired.
JPEG used a Limpel-Ziv compression algorythm that was not patented, and
was implemented/adopted by a standards organization then implemented by
college freshmen using publicly available information - assuring that
it could not be patented.
PNG has it's own advantages in both it's lack of intellectual property
rights encumbrances, as well as it's original implementation in Open
Source. Ironically, PNG uses a more effecient compression algorythm
that was implemented in GNU Public License source code.
There are enough PNG images out there that it is likely to continue to
survive, but now that the LZW patents have expired, the LZW code is
effectively "public domain".
One of the down sides of patent applications is that after 19 years,
the details of the implementation become public domain and anyone can
implement your device without paying royalties.
Since the "implementation" of a patented device in software is the
source code and algorythm, both become public domain when the patent
expires.
You might want to check with a patent lawyer to confirm this.
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| Alexander Terekhov 2005-09-28, 8:07 am |
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r.e.ballard@usa.net wrote:
[...]
> The LZW patent has expired.
See IBM's counterclaims against SCO for unexpired one.
regards,
alexander.
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