Hi
05 Feb 2001, "Samuel W. Heywood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> First of all, the logic of that question is kind of like,
>> "If a 55mph speed limit exists, then why are so many people driving
>> faster than that?" ;-)
SH> No, the logic of that question is kind of like:
SH> "If it is against the law to permit a witch to live then why do we no
SH> longer have have witch trials?" The answer of course is that laws
SH> prohibiting the practice of witchcraft would not in these modern times
SH> likely to be considered valid by the courts.
no steve's example is IMHO far better suited ;)
unisys has the legal patent of the LZW algorithm incorporated into GIF.
Also it is legal to use GIFs, only the authors of programs have to pay
licenses to unisys if their program can read/write or manipulate GIFs, and
therefor needs the compression algorithm to be able to do this.
If the company doesn't pay license fees, it is not your problem, but that
of the company !
SH> If that is indeed the point being made by those claiming the
SH> authority to require the licensing of gifs, then there might be some
SH> validity to their claim. Perhaps their claims might be on shaky
SH> grounds.
no ... it is not
SH> I don't know. This one would be an interesting case to argue before
SH> the courts.
you will loose ...
unisys is IMHO the successor of the ancient company, which developed one of
the first computers called univac.
SH> Sam
CU, Ricsi
--
|~)o _ _o Richard Menedetter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> {ICQ: 7659421} (PGP)
|~\|(__\| -=> Chicken - the egg's way of making more eggs <=-
