lzw.py

[Dinu C. Gherman]

Hi,

I had some fun writing Python functions to encode and decode
data using a variant of the Lempel-Ziv coding algorithm family,
namely LZW, Lempel-Ziv-Welch. 

This is something like a "taboo algorithm" if I understand the 
weird logic of companies and their mind-boggling interpretation
of intellectual property rights. To me this sounds like saying
some of Newton's algorithms were illegal to use without paying
for it.

In any case I don't want to mess with Unisys and let them im-
pose their view of the world on me, but I also don't want to
end, somewhat early, in "what-happens-to-be-just-a-regular" 
car accident...

So, is there a way to make my rather limited brain understand,
what I and you can do with such a code without going to all 
patent offices and legal departments of companies? Am I, my-
self, allowed to use it? Is there a difference between using 
the coding and decoding part? Can I pass anything of this to 
somebody else? Is it illegal to send it, receive it, read it, 
download it, use it? -- All of it? 

Of course, there is zlib, but who says there won't be another 
deep-pocket company popping up tomorrow just to say they have 
invented this "before" already? 

Regards,

Dinu

-- 
Dinu C. Gherman

................................................................
"An average of more than 15 % of adults in 12 industrialized 
countries are functionally illiterate; in Ireland, the United 
Kingdom and the United States, the rates are over 20 %."

  (The State of the World's Children 1999,
   UNICEF, http://www.unicef.org/sowc99)