At 6:21 PM -0500 on 10/29/00, BMichael@... wrote:


>  >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...)

This is a paragraph from a file included with GraphicConverter:

>GIF and some TIFF pictures use the lzw compression scheme. UNISYS 
>has a patent on this algorithm. Therefore, I have to pay a license 
>fee for all copies registered after January 1, 1995

IIRC UNISYS decided not to try and collect fees for the decompression 
algorithm.  There was a lot of discussion about dropping GIF format 
at the time.  I think UNISYS was afraid it would be abandoned if they 
tried too hard to enforce the patent. (that they ignored for many 
years until the Internet got big.)

Ms. Donahue