We have excluded for years the MPPC compression implementation due to
a compression patent held by HiFN (previously STAC). The patent is
not valid anymore, as kindly pointed out by Brett Glass:
See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lempel%E2%80%93Ziv%E2%80%93Stac#Patents
The patent could have lasted until 2015 (20 years after it was issued
in 1995). But it expired early, in October of 2007, because HiFn failed
to pay renewal fees to the US Patent Office. See
http://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/web/offices/com/sol/foia/comm/maint/5463390.pdf
for the ruling on this.
Even before that happened, HiFn was offering licenses free of charge:
https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/328/
HiFn was acquired by Exar Corporation in 2009.
This revision adds back some files from mav@ and makes minor style and
comment updates.