JPEG patent surfaces

A video conferencing company based in Texas says it is going to start pursuing royalties on the transmission of JPEG images. Pictures compressed using the JPEG patent are one of the most common formats for images in the Internet. The company, Forgent Networks, which acquired original patent owner Compression Labs in 1997, has apparently already found someone to pay up for using the technology: Sony. According to TheRegister, Sony has already paid Forgent as much as $15 million for using the patent - a significant portion of the company`s $22 million quarterly revenue. Whether the company is going to pursue any other large corporations is still not clear. However, it does throw the Internet`s "free" nature deeper into doubt because the other dominant imaging format used on the Web, GIF, is similarly owned by Unisys which has regularly suggested it plans cracking down on its use. [More at TheRegister]

Among the many announcements coming out of the annual Macworld Expo in New York is this one: .MAC. Of course there are no prizes for guessing what this is about, but for the sake of accuracy it is best to quote CEO Steve Jobs: ".Mac does what others have tried and failed to do - make Internet services a seamless extension of your computer." Sounds a little bit like Microsoft`s .NET doesn`t it? Especially the reference to "Internet services", which Microsoft tends to call "Web services". The subscription-based service will offer users access to a range of online tools such as a calendar facility, virus checking, backup and e-mail. Even if it isn`t the same thing as .NET exactly, the choice of name is unfortunate, particularly from a company that has a reputation for innovative ideas and not following the pack.

Research company IDC has released another report, this time predicting that the intrusion detection market will grow to almost $700 million by 2006 compared with $65 million for 2001. IDC also points out that despite the current millions that are spent on security, hackers and crackers are still penetrating firms, highlighting the all too common impression among companies that a firewall is the first and last resort when it comes to corporate security. IDC says the growing realisation that standard firewalls need to be augmented by good monitoring and intrusion detection is going to drive the market up in coming years.

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