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Subject:Re: GIF Info (long and opinionated) From:David Knopf <david -at- KNOPF -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 18 Sep 1998 16:06:05 -0700
Linda Sherman wrote:
| Fellow Whirlers:
<snip>
| Most of the commercial web-site developers I know (admittedly not a lot)
| refuse to use GIF. Some, like me, are just plain nervous. Others view it
| as a matter of principle--see the FSF and GNU sites for the relevant
| arguments.
Gosh, Linda, a quick check shows many, many GIFs in use on the Web sites of
Yahoo, Excite, Microsoft, Netscape, Sun, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon.com,
Barnes and Noble, Adobe, American Airlines, United Airlines, and so on. I
had such a hard time finding a large commercial site without GIFs that I
gave up trying! Even the U.S. Copyright Office and the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office feature GIFs prominently on their home pages! Among the Web
developers I know, GIFs are commonly used, and patent and copyright issues
are of no concern.
| My own feelings about using GIF is that in the absence of signed
| letters from both companies saying I can use GIF images freely on any
| commercial websites I develop, it's not worth taking the chance just to
| have marginally better quality and download time. They can afford better
| lawyers than I can.
