I believe you can legally use a GIF encoder that is coded before Unisys
started to collect royalty fees, or you can use an encoder that is based on an
encoder written before Unisys started to collect fees. That is why so many
graphics programs in their About boxes say "Based on.... something before
Unisys started to collect fees".
You can use a GIF decoder without worrying about it being illegal. Which I
believe is why the JDK only offers GIF decoding, not encoding.
I'm not a lawyer, but remember when Unisys started to charge fees, and was
with a company working on a project with Unisys, and remember talking about it
at the time.
PNG is so much better in my opinion, just forget about GIF and use JAI to
get PNG support until the JDK has it.
Glen Scott
Augusto Sellhorn wrote:
> John Zukowski wrote:
> >
> > You have to pay Unisys only if you create software that creates GIFs, not
> > if you USE software that creates GIFs.
> >
> > See http://graphicssoft.about.com/library/weekly/aa083099.htm for a
> > description if you are confused.
>
> The article says "In other words, if you are producing GIFs with
> a licensed program, you have nothing to worry about".
>
> So, if you're using the Acme gif encoder for things like generating
> dynamic gifs on a web site, or (like I do) encoding an Image object
> to send it through the network, that's a no no.
>
> (I wonder if the gif reader in the vm is licensed ...)
>
> For the people who suggested PNG, that would be nice, but PNG still
> doesn't have enough support to be used a lot (JDK 1.3, c'mon !!!)
>
> BTW
> Gosh, the thing I hate the most about the software industry is all the
> legalese. If I'd know this, I'd have taken some law classes !
>
> --
> - Augusto Sellhorn
>
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