>I don't understand, you need a license to create animated gifs? I've been
>creating animated gifs for literally years -- hmmm -- should I go on the
>lamb now?

If you're using a commercial program to create them, you're safe - it's 
the publishers of Photoshop, for example, that must pay Unisys for the 
"right" to save files in GIF format, not the individual Photoshop user. 
If you write a program that can save GIFs, then you need to get a license.

AFA reading/displaying GIFs - AFAIK, the decompression algorithm is 
public domain, only the compression algorithm is patented. (But I'm not a 
lawyer, and don't even play one on TV...)

Bill