My impression is that it is hard to overstate the legal mess surrounding
all the widely-available and well-defined compression algorithms. I
would be delighted to be proven wrong.
My recollection is that there is an ISO/IEC JTC1 subcommittee working on
an international standard for compression and that they are nearing, or
in, DIS vote. I would presume that whatever they are coming up with has
been adequately vetted wrt the legal mess. Whether whatever is left
over is technically worth bothering with, I have no idea--I haven't seen
the thing and probably couldn't evaluate it properly if I did.
Does anyone with more current and active access to JTC1 goings-on
provide any more information on this? Or tell me I'm dreaming?
--john