Suddenly a JPEG Patent and Licensing Fee

Michael Long writes "Forgent Networks (www.forgentnetworks.com) has announced that it owns the software patent on JPEG compression technology, and has stated that it is "in contact" with computer, software, camera, and other digital imaging product manufacturers regarding licensing terms. This ambush of the digitial imaging industry will probably stand as the worst public relations nightmare a company can inflict upon itself."

It's a good thing they can't do that..

[Anonvmous Coward]

... I don't think I can afford to have a lien on my porn collection.

No more jpegs?

[sllort]

Well, there goes the porn industry.
Shall we go fractal? >www.iteratedsystems.com

They should do well with this...

[aslagle]

Look at all the money the .gif royalties made Compuserve...

Just a reminder, kids

[Mononoke]

Do not:

1. Call them repeatedly at 866/276-FORG (3674) asking if their refrigerator is running.
2. Pound www.forgentnetworks.com in the ass repeatedly with any scripts you kiddies might be tempted to use.

Do:

1. Have them check out that Goatse guy for his espressive use of "their" technologies.

Thank you for your support.

I wonder...

[nherc]

I wonder if they paid Compuserve the royalities for all of the .GIF's they use on their website?

Hmm...

Forget Forgent....

[cskaplan]

Now is the perfect time for us to consider widespread adoption of Zeosync's [slashdot.org] miraculous 100-to-1 compression technology.

Re:Certainly.

[larry bagina]

Look how well the online world views Unisys, after all.

... he posted, on a website that uses gifs ...

Simple Fix:

[Anonymous Coward]

./jpg2png -R porn/*

500?

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be new here.

Getting companies to pony up

[jayhawk88]

Man, what I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall in the meeting where these yahoo's go into Redmond and tell Microsoft they owe them a royalty for every version of IE, Office, and any other program that can read JPG's. They'll be lucky if Ballmer doesn't have their company bought or sued into the ground by the time they get their parking validated.

their site uses GIFs! property of UNISYS!

[Anonymous Coward]

If you think back way back, there was an article on /. about the UNISYS patent dispute over GIF, claiming ownership and rights to the format. If you look on these bastard's website they are using GIF. Someone should inform these f***ers they're violating the same thing they're trying to get others for.

---disgruntled---
mjf

Re:500? haha

[Anonvmous Coward]

I bet that number would raise sharply if he looked in his IE cache. Heh

Re:500? haha

[ralphie98]

Maybe it has something to do with quality over quantity, or maybe he's like me and his girlfriend will delete any porn she finds on his machine, making him start over again. i hate when that happens

Let's Return It!

[Tablizer]

(* I don't think I can afford to have a lien on my porn collection. *)

Send it all back to Forgent. Email a few to each employee.

(begin letter)

Dear Forgent Employee,

Attached is some of my porn collection. I am returning it to your company because I inadvertantly used your patented JPEG format.

The rest is still to follow. My printer is slow. Playmate Debby especially requires a lot of ink because of her unorthodox techniques and tools, as you can clearly see in image #4057.

Thank You for your patience and understanding,

[Slashdot User]"

(end letter)

Re:Forget Forgent....

[pmz]

Now is the perfect time for us to consider widespread adoption of Zeosync's [slashdot.org] miraculous 100-to-1 compression technology.

Darn, it looks like Zeosync has gone and compressed themselves out of existence. Or, more likely, they are just so small that the web server can't find them!

Ironic

[CorwinOfAmber]

The press release has many GIF images on it. I wonder if they paid UniSys any royalties?

Definition of "conflicted"

[wowbagger]

Conflicted: the feeling you get thinking about a scummy company using a bad patent to rid the world of goatse.cx.....

Re:Didn't apple try this?

[Anonymous Coward]

that imagine is a .jpg

looks like they are going to have to change that page

Re:Getting companies to pony up

[kingkade]

Balmer's a big fella. It'd be funny if he went into a Chris Farley-like rage and tried to suplex the twiggy lawyers that brought this to them. Bill would just be sitting back in the large leather chair with a white persian cat, penting his fingers together like Mr Burns, watching the carnage ensue.
Maybe this is how MS bullies all the lawyers from companies that fight against them :P

God owns the earth

[WildBeast]

In other news, God has announced that he owns the earth, in fact he goes as far as to claim ownage of the whole universe. So in addition to worshipping him day and night, we're also required to pay him a licensing fee.

Here's the real (dirt) road to riches

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha! These boobs are just amateurs. I on the other hand have purchased the patent rights to toilet paper. I'm gonna make a sh*tload of money!

Re:Ticker symbol: FORG

[tg_schlacht]

if Microsoft were to buy Forgent

I also had that idea.

Microsoft Lawyer: You want us to pay you royalties for using the JPG format in our browser? Run along now before we break out the petty cash, purchase you, and transfer you to somewhere mosquito bites carry fatal diseases.

Forgent Lawyer:Oh shit! We didn't think of that.

Re:Pantent?

[vicviper]

It's MINE! You can't have it! You wants it yes, but no, my precious, I sees it first! Mean AC tricks me, yes! Says "What's in my patent?" UNFAIR! It's my presicousssssss.....

Re:Coffee

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm glad to know that you were able to master hot drinks at such an early age, because at this advanced date the slightly more difficult task of mastering proper use of HTML tags seems beyond your grasp.

Re:They should do well with this...

[kootch]

kinda like /. editors....

Re:Coffee

[Frater 219]

Tea should be made with boiling water, not boiled water.

That's quite true; one should make tea with boiling water, unless it is Chinese tea in which case one makes it with water around 180 degrees F. However, one does not serve it to one's guests at that temperature, since it loses some heat while steeping or brewing. One never leaves tea or coffee on a heater for hours, maintaining its temperature at 180 F until the moment of service; the subtle aromatics of either beverage will quickly evaporate, leaving a soulless and bitter brew.

Moreover, in proper society one does not serve tea or coffee in heat-insulating styrofoam cups. One serves both in china, which does retain heat but not quite as well as styrofoam. (It is because china takes on and dissipates some of the heat that teacups have handles whereas foam cups do not.)

One also serves coffee at table in an open cup, so one's guest can add milk or other adulterants. One does not expect one's guest to remove a tightly fitting lid first, nor to perform said operation without the stability and protection of a table. Presenting such a puzzle to one's guest -- especially a puzzle loaded with the gory surprise of a near-boiling liquid within, ready to scald the loser in this hideous parlor-game -- is beyond the pale of hospitality.

Thus, the standards of proper society for the preparation and serving of tea and coffee do not form a defense for McDonald's in this case.

Re:Ballmer

[Art Tatum]

Y'know, I may not think much of their software, but he has a real future in contemporary interpretive dance. Too bad John Cage is dead, they could do some collaborative work.

Re:Pantent?

[Anonymous Coward]

And thats why EVERYONE serves hot coffee... That is.. everyone outside the US.

The US has crappy coffee.. Crappy cold coffee. Yes, you are supposed to blow on it, or otherwise cool it before drinking it! Have you never made coffee at home? (hint: it needs to boil to brew)

Re:IANAL... is there anyone around who is?

[jazman_777]

Any lawyers reading this?

None of us here is a lawyer, but we play one on /.

Lawyers get a bad rap.

[cpeterso]

Not all lawyers are "evil". It's that 99% of lawyers that ruin it for the other 1%.

Re:They should do well with this...

[bigjocker]

kinda like /. editors....
or /. posters...

Sorry, But...

[virg_mattes]

...it'd be fairly easy to demonstrate prior use on all three of these patents.

In the same vein, I was going to patent making claims about patents on /. but there's a ton of prior use there, too. Oh, well, I guess I gotta keep working.

Or, hey, how about a patent on claiming prior use exemptions on a patent? Wouldn't this allow a corporation to patent anything and make money on either side of the patent fight? Oh, shit, now I've done it...

Virg

Re:Certainly.

[Traxton1]

We'll just go make our own. How hard can it make a lossy compression format? We'll just make it run Windows and lose some data.

Too many pictures anyway

[Acheron]

Thank goodness.

With the help of this company, we'll all be able to use lynx (or one of the other text browsers) to effectively surf again!

Viva!

~Acheron

Re:Let's Return It!

[CrazyDuke]

Maybe we should report goatse.cx as a patent violation...to everyone in the company. Image tags in html email anyone?

Good-bye Jpg our trusted friend...

[Yo Grark]

goodbye jpg our trusted friend
weve used you for years, maybe nine or ten
you've made porn pics a breeze
pics of doves and pretty trees
pics of hearts and pics of knees

goodbye jpg its hard to try
to find a patent free format that compresses without using pi
now that greed is in the air
licensing fees are everywhere
Corporations killing us, they don't care

we had jpg we had gif we had multi-formats like tiff
but the formats are now owned, our future's just on loan

goodbye JPG please still display for me
I know you are now the black sheep of the format family
you tried to be compliant not wrong
but the lawyers are now licensing you for a song
wonder how i'll get along

goodbye jpg, its hard to die
when all the companies are using you on the fly
now that suing's is in the air
web users everywhere, will see your use go rare

we had jpg we had gif we had multi-formats like tiff
but the formats are now owned, our future's just on loan

goodbye jpg my little one
you showed my pics and helped me get my website done
and every time people came around, you'd be linked with a funny sound,
no better format I have found.

ggoodbye jpg its hard to try
to find a patent free format that compresses without using pi
now that greed is in the air
licensing fees are everywhere
Corporations killing us, they don't care

we had jpg we had gif we had multi-formats like tiff
but the formats are now owned, patenting out our future's just on loan

we had jpg we had gif we had multi-formats like tiff
but the formats are now owned, patenting out our future's just on loan

- Yo Grark

==Next they'll tell me the stuff I create on slashdot is really owned by the telco's for using their equipment==