Abe Lempel, Jacob Ziv and Terry Welch Discovered a neat algorithm to squelch CompuServe incorporated it into the GIF Good programmers soon caught the drift The format was published, free and open Many useful things started to happen Then Unisys Corp purchased the rights And changed the terms on LZW overnight The useful algorithm was off limits Ransom to corporate greed and profits On June 20, 2003, the LZW patent expired Shame on Unisys for what has transpired Someday Unisys books will be in arrears While the ideas of LZW survive the years
Funny. From Slashdot.