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Subject:Fussy Web Developers Use GIFs From:"George F. Hayhoe" <george -at- GHAYHOE -dot- COM> Date:Sat, 19 Sep 1998 09:55:03 -0400
Linda Sherman has expressed concerns about using GIF images
on Web sites, but after reading the information at the URL's
she provided, I am fairly certain her concerns are
unfounded. For example, one of the pages she cited, which
reproduces what is apparently a Unisys FAQ about
infringement on their compression technology, says:
<<Unisys in no way wants to discourage end users and
developers from making use of this technology. We intend to
license commercial software developers. However,
non-commercial, non-profit products, including freeware,
need not pay license fees. Organizations introducing a World
Wide Web server and home page to the Internet are not
expected to license the technology if they used a
third-party software application to develop their server
offering. Only the commercial third-party developer in that
case should secure a license. >>
It seems pretty clear that the target here is developers of
software that can save images in GIF format or other formats
that use the Unisys-patented LZW compression technology.