Gregory, GIF uses the patented (by Unisys) LZW compression algorithm (the Lempel-Ziv is not patented, but the Welch part is). Patented "format"s are the crux of the problem.
Cheers, --ldl On 9/22/05, Greg Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Okay, maybe I'm opening a can of worms here, but it's not entirely > clear to me that if I write an application to display or otherwise > process Word documents, I can legally distribute it? I note that the > GNU project carefully avoids the use of GIF images (and they even talk > about it on their web site). I am aware that the compression algorithm > is a special consideration here, but unless a format is explicitly > "open", is it even legal to develop and distribute software that uses > that format? > > > === > Gregory Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > -- LD Landis - N0YRQ - from the St Paul side of Minneapolis ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Tame your development challenges with Apache's Geronimo App Server. Download it for free - -and be entered to win a 42" plasma tv or your very own Sony(tm)PSP. Click here to play: http://sourceforge.net/geronimo.php _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
