And, to boot most MIME composition software probably just passes GIFs
through with out actually doing any compression or GIF creation.
Unisys also responded to the whole thing in a positive way and doesn't
seem to be requiring any licensing for freeware or previously created
software.
Laurence Lundblade
LGL(_at_)CSGrad(_dot_)CS(_dot_)VT(_dot_)EDU (and a few other addresses)
http://oneworld.wa.com/laurence/home.html
Virginia Tech CS -- Blacksburg, Virginia, US -- 703-552-2537
Winter: Bainbridge Island, Wa, USA -- 206-780-2361
On Sun, 8 Jan 1995, Nathaniel Borenstein wrote:
...
The patent only affects compression, not decompression.
This means that a MIME tool that reads GIFs is almost certainly fine,
but a MIME tool that *generates* GIFs may be in trouble. A MIME tool
that uses an external tool to generate GIFs is probably not vulnerable,
since there's no way for it to tell if such a tool is legal or not.
....