> Supposedly unencumbered GIF compressors have I believe popped up from time
> to time, only for them to be withdrawn.
The miGIF compressor, which uses run length encoding, is alive and well. It
doesn't compress nearly as well as a full LZW compressor, but it compresses
many images better than a non-compressing GIF encoder.
I've spent some time studying the Welch patent (the Unisys patent that is
the basis for their claims about GIF). I have not yet found a workaround I
consider useful for the compression claims of the patent. On the other
hand, even if you agree with Unisys' public statements that a patent license
is required for decompression-only software (which many experienced
attorneys do not), I believe there are easy workarounds for the patent
claims for decompression. This may be why Unisys relied on the questionable
"contributory infringement" threat to pressure Web site operators into
licensing the patent for substantial $ even if the site had no compression
(or, for that matter, decompression) software, rather than the alleged
necessity of licensing the patent for decompression only.
--
L. Peter Deutsch | Aladdin Enterprises
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.aladdin.com | 203 Santa Margarita Ave.
+1-650-322-0103 (9-12 M-F) | fax +1-650-322-1734 | Menlo Park, CA 94025
The future of software is at http://www.opensource.org
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