PKZip was one that really moved the compression industry forward. JPEG is another. The current H.264 debate is a sound one and the owners of that patent have e

PKZip was one that really moved the compression industry forward. JPEG is another. The current H.264 debate is a sound one and the owners of that patent have even publicly stated that it'll be free to use for the next 5 years or so. Imagine how many better methods may be discovered to compress and stream video than H.264 over the next half decade. That's a lot of time in this industry!