Re: Are GPLed .gifs legal at all ???

[Mark Rafn <dagon@dagon.net>]

Tomasz Wegrzanowski wrote:
>> I found that > 60 packages in Debian have .gifs included.
> Doh !, not uncompressed pseudo-gifs.
> I was asking if GPLed LZW gifs are legal at all ?

I don't think the GIFs themselves infringe on the patent, as they do not
encode or decode any data.  The patent is for a process (as are all
patents, if I understand correctly), not the resulting object.

If the GIFs were created with unlicensed tools, then the author of the
images might be in violation.  If they are viewed with unlicensed tools,
then the viewer might be in violation.  The author/distributor of such
tools might be in violation.  In all cases, it's the tool that is
infringing the patent, not the data.
--
Mark Rafn    dagon@dagon.net    <http://www.dagon.net/>