![]() The following Netpbm components may be restricted by this patent:Ī good substitute for GIF if the patents are a problem is PNG (see Neither company has ever enforced the patent against trivial users ofįor information from another perspective, see. Owns a patent that may cover the GIF tools. Unisys owns a patent on LZW compression, which is used by ppmtogif,Īnd maybe on LZW decompression, which is used by giftoppm. It is accompagnied by a file COPYRIGHT.PATENT, which gives the following information: The GNU netpbm package contains about two hundred file converters for graphical file formats. Just because Unisys does not go after each and every instance of patent infringement does not mean they won't go after you.-branko ![]() If Unisys only mentions that they are asking licensing fees for LZW, and does not specifically mention libre or gratis software, then this means that Unisys is expecting money for ALL use of LZW, even in libre and gratis software. Is this a Unisys page? If not, it can hardly be used as a source for the statement that the algorithm can be used freely for non-commercial software.-brankoĪ Unisys page doesn't mention this but the page is not specifically addressing free software. A source which states that the algorithm for creating GIFs can be freely used for non-commercial software:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |