Touche. Thanks for the correction. I was hoping the facts wouldn't
interfere with my post, but I guess they did.
Pardon my flippancy. I do find copyright law fascinating, important
and disgusting all at the same time. I doubt the lute list here will
be able to resolve any of the problems with it, however.
mc
__________________________________________________________________
From: R. Mattes <[email protected]>
To: mc41mc <[email protected]>; [email protected]
Sent: Thu, October 21, 2010 11:44:17 AM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Interesting Story about Copyright
On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 07:22:46 -0700 (PDT), mc41mc wrote
> I refused to read this, as there were .gif images on the page.
> As I'm sure you are aware, the .gif format is proprietary, and I
> see no evidence that the proper licencing fees have been paid to
Unisys.
Nonsense! The GIF format is not and never was proprietary. The gif
format specification was released by CompuServe as a free and open
specification in 1987. As a CompuServe spokesperson put it "Recent
discussions of GIF taxes and fees are totally without merit. For
people who view GIF images, who keep GIF images on servers, or who are
creating GIF images for distribution, the recent licensing discussions
have no effect on their activities."
You are confusing this with the copyright on the LZW compression
algorhythm that gif uses. But fear not: that patent ran out in June
2004.
RalfD
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