Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Wed, 10 Jul 2002 13:26:26 -0400 | From | Mark Mielke <> | Subject | Re: bzip2 patent status query |
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On Wed, Jul 10, 2002 at 04:54:51PM +0100, jbradford@dial.pipex.com wrote: > Is bzip2 *definitely* patent-unencumbered? > It claims to be on it's home page, but I found this from the OpenBSD people: > http://www.openbsd.org/2.8_packages/m68k/bzip-0.21.tgz-long.html
If you read a little further on the bzip pages, you would find that the reason bzip2 and bzip are incompatible, is because bzip was found to be patent-encumbered. The search for a better compression algorithm, that wasn't covered by a patent began...
I actually remember when the original sources for the block sorter compression program were posted to comp.sources.misc or somewhere similar. The original impression most people had was 'this algorithm is a hoax... it can't compress...' And so, I believe, nobody bothered to patent it. :-)
mark
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