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VNU Net: Patents hinder open source progress

VNU Net previews the upcoming summit initiated by HP’s Bruce
Perens, who argues that large corporations — like the one he works
for — should donate important patents to the open source
community. Writes Sarah Arnott:

“The growth of open source products has been restricted because
programmers can’t use some key technologies without expensive
licences. Open source browsers, for instance, can’t display GIF
images because the algorithm used for the format is patented by
Unisys.”

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