Gif Patent- Digital Dissent

CAN THE USE OF A DIGITAL CAMERA TURN YOU INTO AN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PIRATE?

(Friday 05 March 2004 by JAMES IAN ZAMORA)

At midnight on June 19th 2003 the Patent on the compression algorithm used in Gifs expired in the United States and with it ended 10 years of IP controversy, but now will Forgent and the JPEG reignite the same debate?

In 1984 Terry Welch publishes a paper entitled “A Technique for High-Performance Data Compression” which details the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm. Missing from the paper is any mention of the fact that Sperry Research Center, the company for which Welch worked, had one year prior filed for a patent on the LZW algorithm.

Although Sperry Research received it's patent in 1985, sotware developers were not aware of this and went on to create applications and file formats using LZW compression. Examples include early WinZip versions, Compress (a unix archival compression tool)TIFF-LZW (where a TIFF is compress using LZW) as well as Adobe's PDF and Postscript-2. The most prominent example though is the GIF graphics format created in 1987 by Compuserve. The GIF quickly became an industry standard for compressed graphics for use in archival and transmission while Sperry did nothing concerning the licensing of their patent. It wasn't until December of 1994 that Unisys (a merger between Sperry and Burroughs) and Compuserve announced that developers of software that creates, reads or writes GIFs must obtaint a license from Unisys.

Initially Unisys said that they would not require a license from non-profit, non-commercial GIF based software or for software marketed before 1995. Unisys would require the licensing of all software produced after 1995 or if the software received any enhancement after 1995. By the summer of 1996 though this had changed and any new cd or book that containted pre 1995 GIF software would have to obtain a license if it was manufactured after 1995. Freeware as well as non-commercial Free Software was no longer exempt and each subsequent version of new GIF software would have to purchase a new license.

This not only fueled the boycott on GIFS but sparked the evolution of the GIF so that the LZW compression could be left behind. In 1995 the Compuserve coordinated the development of the GIF24 which would offer 24-bit lossless compression while being free of the LZW algorithm. Another modification of the GIF was the GEF (Graphics-Exchange Format) which subsequently merged with the GIF24 to become the PNG (Portable Network Graphics or PNG is Not GIF).

By the end of 1996 Unisys had removed all reference of any qualifying medium exempt from licensing. All books, cds, websites, etc. would have to purchase a license from Unisys and pay royalties even if the item containing the patented algorithm was given away for free from a non-profit.

A full transition from GIF to PNG was never accomplished because initially there was not widespread browser and software support. Also, the unveiling of the animated GIF kept the format alive since there was no support for animation in the PNG format. The PNG group has been working on the MNG (Multiple-image Network Graphics) which could replace the animated GIF but currently few browser or graphics programs support the format.

After reaching licensing agreements with Microsoft and Disney Unisys went after commercial websites. In one instance Unisys attempted to sign the GIF license holder Accuweather to a new contract at the cost of $15 million dollars. Accuweather instead decided to switch to PNGs after their license expired and did not resign with Unisys.

Now with the expiration of the American LZW patent and the European and Japanese patents set to expire in June of this year comes the sudden turn of attention to the JPEG.

Forgent Networks, a video conferencing company, who owns patent 4,698,672 which details the “coding system for reducing redundancy” has begun to require a license for all software and hardware that uses the JPEG image format. It appears that the JPEG uses Forgent's compression algorithm as developed by Compression Labs in 1986. Not until the Summer of 2000 though did they begin to enforce their patent on the JPEG which has in that time become a standard image file format.

Forgent has already agreed upon an undisclosed sum for a license with Sony and with one other unnamed electronics manufacturer for $15 million dollars and is now seeking licenses from other sources. In a statement from Forgent they make mention of the different possible technologies that are liable, these include “digital cameras, digital still image devices, personal digital assistants (PDA's), cellular telephones that download images, browsers, digital camcorders with a still image function, scanners and other devices used to compress, store, manipulate, print or transmit digital images.”

While we have yet to see commercial websites come under fire there remains the possibilty of that occuring, and while more remotly, there also exists the possibilty of an individual having to pay a licensing fee for the JPEGS he owns or hosts on his site or an individual being charged with contributory infringment for hosting unlicensed JPEGs on their site.

Forgent maintains that those who do not license their algorithm are in effect pirates. Ken Kalinoski, Forgeent CTO stated Forgent's stance cleary “This is very analogous to the music industry, who have said that the people who have been using our methods and materials have been stealing our intellectual property and this needs to stop...We are just asking for the same thing."