🚀 go-pugleaf

It isn't true.  Unisys only charges the developers of applications that
encode/decode LZW based GIF files (which is most of them).  I know this, as
I write shareware and have read several of their licensing documents.  If
Unisys tried to go after every website developer on the planet, that means
that just about every one of the millions of web sites would have to pay
them money.  Regardless of the patent, that would be absurd.  They don't
have to resources to do this.  Unisys is interested in getting cash from the
developers that use LZW coding in their software.  A web designer never even
sees the LZW and only sees a file with a .GIF extension.  For shareware
developers like me, I've found providing GIF support cost prohibitive, as
the licensing fees are from $2,000 upwards.  Also, in most cases, Unisys
doesn't charge fees for freeware software developers.  I wouldn't worry
about them coming after you, if you use GIFs on your site.  You didn't write
any of the code that allows you to create (i.e. paint software) or view
(i.e. browsers) the files, the people that provided you with the software
did, and they are the ones that are already paying thru the nose for you.

rm

Cory McWilliams <cory@no.spam.rpa.net> wrote in message
news:7r32vf$8ig$1@news.creativelabs.com...
> Wow, I never knew that.
> Do most browsers support PNG files now? I'm just wondering whether it's
> really worth changing over the images at my sites.
>
> Cory
>
> Robert Schlabbach <robert@powerstation.isdn.cs.TU-Berlin.DE> wrote in
> message news:7r2o60$qr2$2@news.creativelabs.com...
> > CK <knight.shade@NOSPAMANvirgin.net> wrote in message
> > news:7r10br$o05$1@uranium.btinternet.com...
> > > In IE 5 the GIF's, any GIF's are virtually invisable, the spectrum,
> > becomes
> > > black or transparent, you can barely see anything.
> > > oooer, oh dear.... help.. should I try installing the 2.17's or am i
> able
> > to
> > > do something about this?
> > > I'm a web designer so it's kinda imperative I'm able to view gifs...
> >
> > GIFs? Are you keen on shelling out $x,xxx to UniSys? In case you haven't
> > heard, they charge up to $5,000 per website for using GIFs now. You
should
> > use the PNG format instead, it's free. File format patents suck rocks.
> >
> > Regards,
> > --
> > Robert Schlabbach
> > e-mail: robert@powerstation.isdn.cs.TU-Berlin.DE
> > Technical University of Berlin, Germany
> >
> >
> >
>
>