#CIS-GIF Situation
Here is a message from internet on the CIS-Unisys GIF situation. I thought some
might be interested.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU [1] Date: Thu Jan 05 11:36:15 MST
1995 From: Mike Heinz <mheinz@GATEWAY.SSW.COM> [1] GIF tax Lines: 38
> The GIF file format is apparently owned by Compuserve and Unisys, who > are
trying to withdraw it from the public domain and demand royalties > for it's
use, INCLUDING PAST USE. By the sound of it, anyone who has any > GIF images on
thier disks is supposed to pay royalties to Compuserve, > perhaps even if you
just have a program capable of reading or writing > GIF files.
Nick,
This isn't quite correct. According to the Phila. Inquirer, (the home
town newspaper for Unisys) the problem is this: Unisys holds the patent on LZW
compression. This compression method was used by Compuserve, without Unisys'
knowledge or permission, when it developed the GIF file format.
Compuserve was apparently unaware of the patent. Unisys, meanwhile, is
a mainframe manufacturer, so they aren't the kind of guys who hang around
compuserve. It wasn't until last year sometime that they realized that GIFs
used LZW compression. Compuserve has agreed to pay a large upfront payment to
Unisys for violating the patent, and to pay Unisys royalties on all its future
GIF code and GIF transfers.
This is where it stands at this point. CIS has agreed that all
"official" GIF developers would, from now on, acquire licenses from Unisys.
Unisys has stated that it has no intention of harassing individual internet
users, but did expect that commercial developers would get licenses to use the
LZW code.
The preceding was all a paraphrase of the original inquirer article.
Unfortunately there is an issue that the article did not mention – unless I'm
confused, the current generation of PC compression software, including LHA,
PKZIP, etc, use LZW compression! That means all these programs are also in
violation of the patent!
Lha and Zip are almost universal as file archive formats. If they are
truly in violation of the patent, every file transfer across the net, or across
BBS systems could be "taxed"!
I'm hoping that someone will tell me that Lha and Zip don't use LZW –
but no one has, yet.
._ _ _ INTERNET: mshea@math.arizona.edu
| | |ichael _>hea COMPUSERVE: 76665,3360