] pajamacore writes "It's worth noting that 20 June 2003 is
] GIF Liberation Day, the day on which US Patent 4,558,302
] expires. The patent describes the LZW compression
] algorithm used in .gif files. That said, maybe the prices
] of image editing applications will drop slightly when
] corporations don't have to pay fees to Unisys."

I find it amusing that Slashdot posted a troll as a story. Noone is going to drop prices, they are just going to have one less expense and be happy about it. Free software is going to be the cheif benefactor as far as end users are concerned. Troll.

The insightful question to ask would be, what will Unisys do in the next few days? Something similar to what RSA did when RSA expired? That being, toss the patent into the public domain a few days before it expires, turn the whole thing into a big press marketing event, give away some tee shirts, build brand, etc. One way or another, mention of the patent expiring will wind up in every tech mag in the planet, because gif is used all over.. If they do nothing those articles are all going to be "haha!", "gif patent expires, helps open source", and "Unisys loses gif revenue". If they do something smart they can get whatever their thing is talked about in every tech mag on the planet at once for free as a consolation prize..

Slashdot | GIF Patent Prepares to Expire (Troll)