Unix compress (.Z) files

[Robin Munn]

Heiko Wundram <heikowu at ceosg.de> wrote:
> Am Samstag, 8. Mai 2004 01:04 schrieb Peter Smith:
>> Are there any utilities in Python which can uncompress a file zipped
>> on a unix system using "compress"?
>
> Unix "compress" uses a form of the LZW compression codec (same thing as is 
> used for GIFs), and because of the patent restrictions UniSys has on this 
> codec, it'll be hard to come across a decompressor for this kind of file, if 
> not the original Unix tool itself by now (which is symlinked to gzip on my 
> workstation installation). As far as I know, Python has no binding to an 
> LZW-decompression library (zlib uses something completely different), and so 
> you're on your own.
>
> But coding an LZW decompressor is not that hard... ;)

Didn't that patent expire already?

(Google, Google...) From http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw --

    The U.S. LZW patent expired on June 20, 2003, the counterpart
    Canadian patent expires July 7, 2004, the counterpart patents in the
    United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy expire June 18, 2004, and
    the Japanese counterpart patents expire June 20, 2004. 

The U.S. patent has expired, but you may not be able to distribute an
LZW program worldwide yet. Just wait two months, though, and then you'll
be able to write and distribute a Python module for LZW decompression
without infringing on any patents.

-- 
Robin Munn
rmunn at pobox.com