First GIF, now JPG?

[Worm]

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0404/04...eglawsuits.asp

[Corey]

Yeah, this one hit the news a while back. What a drag...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[AGRO]

What is next? Someone will want some money for .txt format.

[TJ_Tigger]

That is amazing. Maybe some one will patent the binary format and anything that stores information in binary format will need to have a license to use it.

[obscure reference]It is a good think time travel is not realized today. It will be a Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy all over again. [/obscure reference]

[Corey]

Tricky issue, on one hand, that's what you want. Until the courts deal with this there will be no peace and it'll take a few whacky law suits before they'll step in and deal with it at all, i.e. Mettalica trying to copyright an A minor chord or something like that.

On the other hand, here in Canada the copyright laws went unvamped for decades upon decades and still made strong reference to "perforated rolls" (paper punch card rolls for 1920's "player" pianos) up until very recently. And our courts are notoriously corrupt. For example, currently we pay a levy to wealthy for-profit record companies on all our blank CDs even though we never use them for music. That's the sort of corpo-friendly proletariat-be-danged "legal" decisions you get from our courts on these matters. It's not at all far of a leap from this to them again using legislation to create profits for these people, such as Tiggs idea about allowing a patent on all binary info, etc. Not far at all.

I mean, can you imagine having to pay out an extra $1 for every sandwich you buy for the rest of your life just because the wheat board is being run by overpaid incompetents who have caused lower-than-usual profits? Cause that's exactly what the CD levy is. Go visit the RIAA board members' homes if you want to see where all those levy moneys go. They aren't exactly brownbagging it. No one thought it could happen yet here we are, paying them cash each time we purchase a data CD.

People who make $5 per hour paying cash to millionaires for using a product (data CDs) which is completely unrelated to them in any way, shape, or form... It doesn't get any more obsecene that that although this jpeg suite comes very close on the Foul-o-meter.

The laws are ridiculously inadequate to deal with the crop of modern super-pirates who view litigation as a legitmate income stream. Creativity and innovation have given way to extortion and litigation. Fact is that they could have easily licensed their technology and become very rich but they refuse to be reasonable and negotiate properly. They expect profitable companies to share their profits rather than simply viewing it from a production-cost vs. profit fee standpoint. That's the purest form of greed I can think of, i.e. someone wants to buy something from you so you charge them the most possible money rather than simply charging them a fair price.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Intrigued]

Let me use an icon for the first time after that post Corey:

[Corey]

I'm honored. Actually I just realized our copyright act does in fact still contain direct reference to perforated rolls:

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-42/relprov.html

I wonder when was the last time anyone created a perforated roll to store data, let alone to infringe on a copyright? I'm sure there are specialty companies out there still doing them for collectors, but sheesh, no wonder this kettle of fish.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software