Message-ID: 199911302253.OAA07994@moica.berkeley.edu
To: tiff@olympiakos.com
Subject: Re: libtiff 3.5.3 release.
From: Izumi Ohzawa <izumi@pinoko.berkeley.edu>
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 99 14:53:48 -0800
In-Reply-To: <E11svfy-0003Tm-00@kurtz.fake>
References: <E11svfy-0003Tm-00@kurtz.fake>
Reply-To: izumi@pinoko.berkeley.edu
Sender: owner-tiff@olympiakos.com


On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, you wrote:

> Version 3.5.3 is now available at http://www.libtiff.org/ and
> ftp://ftp.onshore.com/.
>
> The ChangeLog will follow, but please note the most important change:
> LZW compression has been removed.
> LZW decompression is unchanged.

Thank you for this change.  I always wondered how LIBTIFF could
get by this long.

Now, I need a solid reference that LZW decompression is not
covered by the LZW patent.  Nothing I have read, except for opinions
or second-hand quotes at various forums, clearly indicates
that decompression is not part of the patent.

Especially, does anyone have written views from the Unisys itself
on this?

Xpdf (PDF viewer) author goes to the trouble of not using LZW
decompression in Xpdf itself, but exec's system's "uncompress" to
do the decompression.  I believe he must have been a target of
"Unisys patent enforcement."

Regardless of what court may or may not rule in the end, that
doesn't matter.  Most of us here, I think, just don't want to
hear from Unisys counsels, ever.

Izumi



