Re: DOS 3.3 for 1.40 MB disk, for a system with non-working 80-column code?

[Jalapeno <jalapeno1@mac.com>]

In article <atehbo0gjk@enews2.newsguy.com>,
 "Charlie" <charlied@NOSPAMbboard.com> wrote:

> 
> It is my understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong on this) that the
> ShrinkIt algorithm is patented and that the company that owns the rights to 
> it aggressively enforces it's ownership.

Unisys inherited the patent for LZW compression during one of its 
mergers. Dr. Dobbs journal had some articles explaining how it works 
(prior to the merger) and programmers began using it. When Adobe added 
LZW compression to the PDF format and gave away Acrobat reader for free 
Unisys management went balistic (how much money have we lost in this 
process!).

Unisys decided to enforce the patent in an odd way. A shareware author 
could pay a one-time fee of $2,000 USD if they charge for their program. 
A freeware author had to pay a royalty for EVERY copy of their program 
that was distributed, for use of the patented compression/decompression 
algorithm. This allowed them to negotiate a cash settlement with Adobe. 
Unfortunately, Andy Nicholas owes a royalty for every one of us who uses 
Shrink-it (until the patent expires). The Apple II community has decided 
that programs written prior to Unisys enforcing their patent are exempt 
(though, to my knowledge, and I asked them, Unisys has never said so).

I seriously doubt Unisys will go after Shrink-it, they were more 
interested in getting money from Acrobat reader.