Re: Callouts in Graphics

["Fred Ridder" <docudoc -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

First of all, it was Unisys who were demanding the royalties,
which were for the LZW compression algorithm that
Compuserve used when they developed the GIF format.
(Compuserve didn't realize that the algorithm was patented.)
If Compuserve really did try to collect royalties (and some say
that this is an urban myth) it was only because Unisys was
collecting royalties from them.

Second, the royalty was not for the use of the image format.
It was for the use of the compression algorithm in some
application that was capable of creating GIF images. In other
words, it was application developers who theoretically owed
a royalty for every copy of any app that could save an image
as GIF. Once images were created in GIF format, they could
be stored, transferred, and viewed without any issue of
patent infringement.

Third, the patent expired in June of 2003, so the whole
thing is moot. Well, maybe not completely moot, because
IBM also holds a patent on LZW and their patent won't
expire until next summer; but IBM has never attempted
to enforce their patent.