Re: Latest UNISYS LZW patent nonsense -- $5,000 for every web site
On Wed, 25 Aug 1999, Eduardo Marcel Macan wrote:
> Besides I think we will face yet another problem. All developers
> with packages that include gifs in /usr/doc or in any web page should
> check them to see If we are not pottentially sending a 5K dollar bill to
> all our users... :)
It might be wise to 'ungif' them (save as uncompressed). However,
what do we do with the uncompression that most any image program has? Is
this a ploy to kill free software ($5000 to a business is nothing, and
it's tax deductible)?
Places like yahoo.com license the formula because Netscrape and IE
cannot read other formats right now (my guess), Netscrape and IE will cost
$20 each (lusers pay either by purchasing the browsers or through other
products), and there is no incentive to move to a free image format
(On the server side because the 'mainstream' uses gif, on the client
side because lusers don't notice/care).
Has anybody saved the text of the original demands (from '94)?
Can they change terms for existing software? Will lynx end up as being our
only option of reading web pages? :)
Greetings,
Michael.
"I'm not just a server, but I'm also a client." Debian GNU/Linux
Michael Stroucken stroucki@debian.org Is your penguin 64 bit?
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