Re: Does NOS SMTP LZW mode infringe on Welch patent?

[iialan@iifeak.swan.ac.uk (Alan Cox)]

> When Terry Welch wrote the old Unix "compress" program, his employer
> patented his improvement on Lempel and Ziv's compression algorithm. I
> understand this patent is now owned by Unisys.
> 
> Does the Lempel-Ziv-Welch compression used in NOS compressed SMTP service
> infringe upon this patent?

If you use it for anything but research in the USA yes. Around here it's not
a problem 8). The gzip system is patent free so a XGZP is probably the better
move. Its also more efficient at compressing although it does seem to like
a lot of memory.

Alan