ietf-822
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Re: let's get rid of image/gif

1995-01-10 10:32:46
Tony, et al,

At 2:04 PM 1/9/95, hansen(_at_)pegasus(_dot_)att(_dot_)com wrote:
But the MIME specs do NOT say anything about the use of patented technology.

Correct, because I guess we didn't realize there was a patent claim on gif.
The IETF standards process documentation very much DOES have discussion
about the question of standardizing patented technology.

Unfortunately, image/gif is in the original Mime spec.  And THAT spec IS on
the standards track.  That makes the content-types referenced in it
implicitly part of the standard.

So, if image/gif were merely registered with IANA separately, there'd be no
problem.  Having it built into the Mime spec changes things, I believe.

d/

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Dave Crocker
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