ISO Could Withdraw JPEG Standard 457
McSpew writes "According to The Register, the ISO is prepared to withdraw JPEG as a standard if Forgent Networks continues to assert its patent claims over JPEG's compression algorithm." I'm sure the JPEG committee would still be happy to hear of prior art.
Finally... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This is really no problem (Score:1, Insightful)
Grrr. (Score:2, Insightful)
This is a Good Thing(tm) (Score:5, Insightful)
So what? (Score:3, Insightful)
ridiculous (Score:0, Insightful)
HTML 4.0 only became a true standard when Microsoft supported it in Internet Explorer. Likewise, GIFs are still standard, despite the huge campaign for PNGs. And SMB is a standard for filesharing, while DOC is a standard for word processing.
JPEG is a standard because every graphics program and web browser supports it, not because of some gold star from the ISO. If the ISO wants to remain relevant, it needs to stop making these self-righteous and ineffectual proclaimations and start working on something that matters.
Damage (Score:1, Insightful)
ISO shouldn't fight fights (Score:2, Insightful)
It's not just about your personal preference (Score:5, Insightful)
What is it with you PNG fanatics? (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, the issue at stake here is not just about whether or not JPGs can or cannot be used; if Forgent gets away with this, the door is open for all other companies to get away with submerging their patents and then springing royalties onto us. GIFs have been taken from us, and now it looks as if JPGs will be taken from us as well, and I don't think that it's a good idea to rely on just one picture format. I'd rather have choice, thanks very much.
.jpg will not die (Score:2, Insightful)
Though by all means I'd love to see someone try to sue Microsoft because of Internet Explorer. Just like smokers trying to sue the tobacco industry: wait the plaintiff out until he/she pases on from the cause of the lawsuit. 15 million is way more than the 2-3mil corporate lawyers would make off the case.
-Matt
like it or not, JPG support is important (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wrong approach (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This is a Good Thing(tm) (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This could just mean... (Score:5, Insightful)
A search on patents using "image AND compression" at the US Patent office returned 21314 hits for 1996 through 2002, 6592 from 1991 through 1995, and 3741 from 1986 through 1990. That's a total of 31647 patents in 12 years.
Are you trying to tell me that there is nothing in the Jpeg 2000 specification that couldn't be shoehorned to fit within one of these 31 thousand patents given a sufficiently unscrupulous company and a technically clueless judge???
Re:This is a Good Thing(tm) (Score:5, Insightful)
So no, whining isn't a bad thing, because, if one year down the road our social collective asserts that JPEGs time has come due to the groundword of people expressing dissatisfaction with it now, it will be much easier to move to something else in one fell swoop.
Being a martyr can be useful, but more often its useless. Education takes time, but our actions are far more effective once everybody is on the same page.
Just Say No (Score:2, Insightful)
The wrong way of doing business. (Score:3, Insightful)
Sometimes I don't get our economy. Although I understand that companies want to make money and profit from their products or services, I don't get why some companies are at the public's throat most of the time. Don't the executives get that by making the public angry they're not doing any good to the company's reputation? Do they really expect me to buy anything that involves a JPEG algorithm after a scandal that they put on? If everybody starts pushing for patents and enourmous fees nobody will be willing to do any business, because nobody wants to be sued. I have nothing against patens, they're cool, they can profit an inventor to a reasonable degree and benefit the public at the same time. The companies that hold patents, should be proud of them and open them up to the public, after all that everybody will benefit from whatever they invent and chances are that they're going to make more money than buy suing each other.
Open file standards (Score:2, Insightful)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/17/124225 7&mode=thread&tid=106
There is a much better approach. We need to lobby our Government bodies to insist on using software that defaults to non-proprietary file standards (I'm going to refer to these as OFS(Open File Standards) from now on) as a first step.
OFS(Open file Standards) are a cause that we can get support from all computer users, as it benefits Linux but also Mac, Solaris and even M$ OS users.
A good argument to use is that the requirements to make information open and publicly available is discriminatory to poor people if the file standards require paying the M$ tax. An amendment to the FOIA(Freedom Of Information Act) at the federal and state levels is what to ask for. When the Feds require open file standards, Linux will become much more competitive. Once the files standards are open, Linux can easily succeed.
Be aware that GIF, JPG, are not open standards. Even PDF cannot be modified to add functionality. If Adobe decides to come out with a super set of PDF and collect royalties they have every right to do so. What we should push for is for the government (particularly the Federal level) to support open standards, free to all, much as the bureau of standards has done for units of measure (let's hope no one claims a patent on the meter).
Furthermore, we need to ask that all the extensions of government web pages be free of proprietary structures so that any browser will be assured of displaying the page content without depending on proprietary plugins.
Re:Does it matter much anyways?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The wrong way of doing business. (Score:2, Insightful)
So what? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm afraid far more than this is necessary to fix the problem, unfortunately this threat doesn't even amount to a slap on the wrist.
Re:Ummm.. (Score:2, Insightful)