Unisys Enforcing GIF Patents 483
ESR writes "Remember the flap back in 1994-1995 about the GIF
format, with Unisys behaving like jerks over the LZW compression
method and threatening to charge license fees for use of their bogus patent?
Well, brace yourselves. It just got worse. Under
Unisys's new policy, they've gone beyond shaking
down software authors. They're now threatening to sue even noncommercial websites that carry GIFs
for a $5000 license fee, regardless of whether
the GIFs were generated by licensed software or
not.
The gory details are at Don Marti's Burn All GIFs Day site.
Time to convert all your GIFs to some other format. I like PNG
better than JPEG, as it's lossless. The PNG
site carries a gif2png tool that does a good job;
I just used it to clean up my personal website.
GIF animations won't survive the conversion, however...uh, wait. Maybe Unisys just did us
a favor after all... " Here is the Unisys page that started it all.
Animated GIFs (Score:1)
Procedure for browsing the Web: click on link. wait for page to show. wait for "Stop Animations" to become enabled. click "Stop Animations". read page.
Re:Animation (Score:1)
I really don't mind Javascript-animations -- they aren't as resource intensive as Java (or take 5 minutes to load) and are pretty easy to code.
Finally, Javascript animations are far more flexable then what GIF supports or motion PNG/JPEG images.
Alternative to LZW compression (Score:1)
This apparently didn't get much attention outside of the BBS community, which at that time was already beginning to lose ground due to growing availability of the Internet.
For anyone who cares, Telegrafix [telegrafix.com] still exists, and is currently promoting the latest incarnation of RipScrip as a vector format for the web. It's interesting, but would be a lot more useful if it were more open. Some folks didn't like RIP back in the BBS days, but I always thought it was a fundamentally good idea that just suffered from being too proprietary.
---
vilvoy
Re:you are an utopian airhead (Score:1)
Re:Innerstin' Situation (Score:1)
Re:TIFF, PDF too??? (Score:1)
Re:PNG Animation (Score:1)
Re:.PNG (Score:1)
PNG? What's that? (Score:1)
Re:feed the world and stop being greedy (Score:1)
The US provides a particularly healthy environment for these companies and they love it - hence the level of pharmacutical research there VS the rest of the world.
Just finished my patent (Score:1)
Don't bother guys, I just got my patent for E=mc2. I can now legally control all nuclear power and have a say when someone wants to detonate a nuke. Thanks for the inspiration UNISYS!!!!!
Re:We need a free alternitive to PDF anyway. (Score:1)
Oh, come off it. I'm not a troll. My evidence follows.
So there! =P
Yes, I do realze that that isn't the kind of troll you ment, but then I don't spend my free time trying to start flame wars on Slashdot eithor, so...
Did you notice the Microsoft brain-damage? (Score:1)
Re:This is dissapointing (Score:2)
Absolutely, I mean, if I spent several years developing an algorithm like MP3 - I shouldn't have ANY right to make money off my sweat and blood. I should be elated that someone came along, read my code, and distributed it to the whole world. My family didn't need to be fed this year. Tom
More like you speant years developing an algorithm like MP3 for your software. Then when you release it, a dozen people sue you into oblivion for using "a method of reducing the size of a file which encodes audio by reducing the amount of data encoded into the file in such a weay that the listner can still recognise that a sound was recorded", and "A method for distributeing a sound by means of a device which follows instructions encoded into a stream of binary values", and finally, use of "a method to induce people to give you money in exchange for something they want for their computing device".
All invalid, and all backed by more money than you've ever seen in your lifetime, and all willing to make an example of you at a loss so others will toe the line.
IMHO, unless of until this whole mess can be fixed, most people would be better off without patents existing at all.
burnallgifs.org needs to do some research (Score:1)
Don,
I happen to work for Unisys and disagree with some of the comments on your site. Before I get into explaining them, I would like tell you a bit about myself. I am not your average Unisys guy. I a 22 year old May '99 graduate of West Chester University, who has been with Unisys since January '99. Before that I did financial software for three years. I am not some old Unisys lover who has been with company since Univac.
First, Unisys is still a well known computer company. We have over 34,000 employees in over 100 countries, our stock is up and if you want a server that never crashes you have to go to us or IBM. That is fact is well known. Our clients are States (PA recently made news with Unisys) and Countries (we recently made a multi-billion dollar deal with Spain).
If the problem is "a flaw in the US patent system" then what did Unisys do that was so wrong? If a company invests its time and money into something that then it should be able to charge for it. This is one way in which programmers actually get paid for their work and can thus earn a living doing what they love. I just can't see a problem with that. As for the license fee, it is obvious that vendors still have a choice and can use other formats should they not want to pay. What is the problem? Imagine if you didn't get paid for the work you do.
Next, the MCP article is almost a year old, meaning it proves nothing. From your remarks, it seems that you do not even know what MCP is.
You are wrong about Unisys not "inventing anything since long before the web." My own group is in the process of getting a patent. It involves off loading I/O (TCP/IP, Raid) processing from a host system on to an intelligent adapter. Our cellular multiprocessing (CMP) architecture is a completely new and innovative invention. Actually, we invent things pretty often around here.
Your next quote comes from Giga Information Group, not Unisys. It was only re-published with Giga's permission (did you obtain it?). The environment they talk about is Microsoft Windows Terminal Server with Citrix WinFrame. Neither of these are Unisys products. In fact, there is a lot of Unisys development done to address the weaknesses in Microsoft Windows NT to try to make it more like our main frames.
Unisys is not "counting on the legal department as the main revenue source." Our Services group brings in over half our seven billion dollar revenue. Our Computer Systems group brings in the rest.
If you are going to attack something, please learn a bit more about it first. Otherwise your argument falls flat on its face.
Re:Use JPEG (Score:1)
GIF's are almost useless anyway (Score:1)
It does have it's niche for small size web graphics. But there are other, newer, better, more open formats that can do the job just as well.
I think the biggest potential negative effect this might lead to is the appearance of multiple new formats. We already have way more than enough; I don't think there's much need for more than 2 or 3 bitmap and 2 or 3 vector formats. (BTW it sure would be nice for browsers to support a vector format or two).
mdm
By tommorrow every GIF on my site is dead!!!! (Score:1)
Re:Gif Proxy WRONG! (Score:1)
>their algorithm.
This is just plain wrong. The Webserver NEVER uses the LZW scheme!! The browser receives the image STILL compressed, and then uncompresses it. They are trying to charge you even though you, as a web-hoster, may NEVER have used their algorithm! You don't have to use LZW to take a compressed GIF, download it from somewhere, and put it on your page... you only use LZW if YOU create or view the gif.
This scheme you lay out is not reasonable, because it involves people paying licensing fees while potentially never using the licensed technique.
However, if they use your GIF Proxy, then YOU, running the GIF Proxy, ARE using the LZW patent, and ARE liable.
So you take a situation where no liability actually exists, and create a situation where liability is present. I'm sure Unisys would love you for that.
Upgrade or else... (Score:2)
Hold on? Perhaps they ARE being nice to us after all - I mean, it takes so long to get old deprecated crap out of the worlds computers (Win3.1, etc) - maybe this is the fast track way out of the whole "backwards compatibility" bind!
UPGRADE OR I'LL SUE!!!
Re:What about PostScript and PDF? (Score:1)
holy crap!!
Re:Ozone Hole is real, or why are the frogs dying? (Score:1)
Mother nature herself dumped more Chlorine into the upper atmosphere than we did throughout all of Freon's life in one massive eruption of mount Penitubo (SP?) years back. Enough, using the theories given about Freon to eradicate the Ozone layer once and for all- no hole, just no Ozone layer. Guess what- no eradication. No massive enlargement of the "hole". What does that do to the Freon theories? Why did nobody tell you all about this eruption or what it did? Vested interests.
Clue 1: Freon is heavier than air. How in the hell does it get up to the Ozone layer?
Clue 2: The international ban on Freon production goes into effect the very second DuPont's international patents run out on Freon.
Anti-Unisys/GIF Propagenda (Score:1)
I think it's time for us to accelerate our anti-unisys propagenda. Start by vocing out our concers, making web sites (like the burngifs web site), telling people away from UNISYS products, in favor of other, better products. Calling your local rep and educating them about software patents and the horror that comes from it (give Unysis as an example). Put a UNY$I$ Sucks logo on your bumper. On all your sites put a link to a prominant non-gif site (like gnu.org) and copy gnu.org's anti-gif policy statement and use it. Use PNG. Write nice and clean letters to the executive branch at UNISYS and demand (nicely) that they back down, reason with them, (like you do with kids), explain to them what a Network is, then what an Internet is, then what GIF represents. Show them how foolish they are. Show them how they are putting the community against them, which would, in the end bring about their downfall. Tell them about other companies that had ventured into this arena and had god eaten alive by the nerds.
Power to the nerds!
--
Not to worry. (Score:1)
Right?
--
As useful as this may be... (Score:1)
Re:Web hit counters that use 1-bit GIFs (Score:1)
Unisys evidently does think so. Look at the first paragraph of their LZW FAQ [unisys.com] -- they assert patents in the US, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the UK.
Re:We need a free alternitive to PDF anyway. (Score:1)
Please, anyone correct me if I'm wrong.
GIFs are so out of date (Score:2)
PNG is far superior in most respects. I'm surprised its taken so long to catch on. I assume that this new Unisys move is going to help it get bigger.
Re:gif2gif (Score:1)
PNG/MNG (Score:1)
Animation (Score:2)
As nice as it might sound to get rid of those damn animated GIFs as banner ads, this might lead to something far more annyoing and evil: Java banner ads.
(shudder)
Besides GIF, are there any other formats that support animation? From what I understand (which may be false), animation was tacked on to the GIF format after a while; could the same thing be done to PNG (or even JPEG)?
-ElJefe
Re:burnallgifs.org needs to do some research (Score:1)
Remove GIF support from all future browsers (Score:1)
Remove all support for displaying GIF images from all future versions of Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, and the like. If you want your web page viewable by the next generation of browsers, DON'T use GIF images. It would be quite simple to strangle Unisys at the source, by making the outdated format which uses their obsolete algorithm inaccessible to most users.
Those requiring lossless compression could use PNG. Otherwise, JPG is kinder to bandwidth anyway. As for animations -- I believe there are a number of non-GIF methods for supporting them if they are really that necessary (a debatable point).
Re:Unisys droid tells all! (Score:1)
Re:Important things to think about... (Score:1)
A format doesn't suck because it has less support than other formats. If that were true then everyone should go back to using ASCII for documents because, ahem, EVERY platform has support for rendering ASCII perfectly.
PNG is a superior image format in many ways; instead of shouting nonsense like "PNG SUCKS", how about encouraging more people to use modern browsers that are PNG-aware. You'll also be looking at a size savings, since PNGs are more compact, on average, than GIFs.
Re:Damit Jim!!I'm a country programmer, not a lawy (Score:1)
You shouldn't have to... LZW is a compression algorithm and there is no way to tell if a given image was compressed with a program that licensed the algorithm from Unisys.
There's been a lot of talk about Unisys forcing you to disclose what program(s) you use to create your GIFs. I really don't think this is feasible. On my Mac, I have at least 10 different programs capable of saving GIFs or compressing images with LZW--everything from Photoshop 5.5 to GIF Builder to Quark. Gods, if you count programs that use QuickTime, that number pops up to 25-30.
Re:Unisys squashing web software development (Score:1)
Re:What about PostScript and PDF? (Score:1)
Re:Glad I don't like GIF anyway... (Score:1)
They have MNG, as you may have seen mentioned a few times on this topic.
For example, Paint Shop Pro 5 comes with Animation Shop to make your animated GIFs. It supports animated GIFs as well as MNG. I always save my original work in MNG format since it has no 256 color ceiling and no compression,etc. Unfortuantely for use in the real world, the MNG file will be exponentially longer than a rendered GIF would.
Clear things up (Score:2)
or service, you should have a license from Unisys to use the LZW patent. Or even if the developer
or service provider has a license, but it doesn't cover your use of the particular application you
received, you should have a license from Unisys to use the LZW patent.
Well I'm glad that cleared that up.
Whats really interesting is if you read theirlicensing definitions [unisys.com] apparently this $5000 dollar license is strictly for noncommercial websites. Commercial websites need to negotiate the license seperatly for each case. This could easly lead to Unisys choosing to apply a heavy hand to some and not to others.
Re:YUCK! (Score:1)
Re:UNISYS UNABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH WORLD (Score:1)
Actually Unisys software and hardware are used many goverments and large financial institutions. I would call that important.
Re:Why?! (Score:1)
I've read that many times before and it never held true for me. Famous for being famous people (celebrities, on e! [eonline.com], etc..) might get a agree, but if it was revealed my town's mayor was a KKK member - few people would vote for him - and his life would be pants [pipex.com].
--
Re:No, none of this is really at Unisys site, AFAI (Score:1)
I don't think Unisys would care too much about that program (except perhaps the decoder part) since it would take on the order of 10^(10^10) cycles per image.
Transparent PNG in Gimp? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Rat on some sites (Score:1)
Tell it like it is, brother (Score:2)
ROFLOL - If I were a moderator I would bump this up for funniness!
In my job, I work with a legal department (won't name names, but you could probably find it by looking at my old posts
"Holding things up" really does seem to be the job of legal, though of course they recieve plenty of assistance from our loyal gub'mint.
heh.
timothy
Re:PNG/MNG (Score:2)
Of course, with no animated PNG support, MNG notwithstanding, that means all those annoying banner ads will be in javascript
Re:AMEN! :D (Score:2)
And about a million more whines. Sorry, couldn't resist.
Re:Hrmm..... (Score:2)
contact the Unisys Licensing Department at 215-986-5693 (or fax at 215-986-3090) to ensure that you're safe. If they expect me to pay anything, I'll be sure to keep whoever answers the phone talking for a couple hours.
If you've got a toll-free number for us, more people will do it. I, for one, can't afford to pay for hours of cross-country long distance phone charges, even for a good cause.
----
Re: It sounds cool? (Score:2)
MNG!
MNG!
MNG!
MNG!
MNG!
MNG!
MNG!
Re:gif2gif (Score:2)
This doesn't sound like my understanding of the patent. They have a claim on the compression/decompresion algorithm, not the output.
I agree 100%! Unfortunatly, that doesn't stop them from going to court. Court would almost certainly cost more than $5000. Personally, I'll just migrate away from GIF until the patent runs out. PNG and MNG will hopefully have taken over that niche by then anyway.
Re:burnallgifs.org needs to do some research (Score:2)
However if he had moved to another job, been laid off, or fired over a dispute he would no longer be gaining benefit from those patents, other than as nice resume trophies (which are worth money, but enough?)
My point is that patents are for the benefit of corporations. And hey, I like a vibrant economy as much as you do. They do let it trickle down to their employees. But it is disingenuous to say that their purpose is to allow individual software innovators to profit from their ideas since that rarely happens, except indirectly.
Jim
Re:Stock Price (Score:4)
Welcome to the weird world of corporations.
Re:Animation (Score:2)
bzzzt... almost right.... (was Re:Animation) (Score:2)
One of the things that mpeg has is ability to have a keyframe every few frames.. think of a keyframe as a jpeg image.. the other frames inbetween keyframes are differential frames. they store only what are the changes between frames.
This allows to save alot of space, as often frames are almost the same. Now the changes per frames are saved only for sections that have changes. Next the frame is split into a 8x8 pixels boxes, and the framechanges note where did those boxes move to (to save even more space).
Not all mpeg compressors use this keyframe thing (I heard xing doesnt do it, but then many people dont appreciate xing for quality, but speed only)
Anyways... so mjpeg is really similiar to an mpeg with every frame being keyframe.. its easy...
doing keyframe every 3 frames improves quality per file size ratio, but on the other hand for fast pased sequences you can see some artifacts (but then its fast paced, so the artifacts change very fast as well).. this is the point that I heard few people complain about DVDs.
anyways... hope this clears the confusion a bit..
Re:YUCK! (Score:2)
Re:burnallgifs.org needs to do some research (Score:2)
That's very interesting. I'm really glad to hear that L, Z, and W will be getting the money from the license. Silly me, I thought it was just going to the bottom line of a multinational corporation.
I have a friend at Intel with patents, and he gets zero dollars on those patents, its just an ego thing. Is it not true that nearly all patents are enforced by corporations, and all corporations require surrender of intellectual property that is work-related when you hire on?
So, explain to me how patents are keeping programmers fed, please. I already understand that they are crucial to keeping lawyers fed.
Jim
Re:You are a troll (Score:2)
Try this experiment some time: Create a GIF image with an anti-alised edge on a white background and put that on a web page with a black background. that ghosting around the edge of the GIF is the reason you want a true alpha channel. Sadly most browsers still don't support the alpha channel on PNG (it's not like the format is undocumented or particularly difficult to work with or anything!).
Re:We need a free alternitive to PDF anyway. (Score:2)
sc
Better fix Slashdot, then (Score:2)
Re:GIFs made with Licensed software OK? (Score:2)
Re:Use JPEG (Score:2)
The banner ads and such, though, are animated GIF's. Those all come from an outside graphics artist, and basically we go with what he sends us.
-E
your evolt.org article is wrong! (Score:2)
Your article on evolt spreads outdated information -- because Unisys changed their minds since the "Unisys Clarifies Policy" article you reference was published. Unisys has revoked their freeware exception and has been actively going after freeware authors. You did notice that it isn't on the Unisys web site, didn't you? They flushed the original page down the Orwellian memory hole.
Unfortunately, the word of most corporations is worthless if it is not in a legally binding contract.
The LPF and their website is pretty much dead.
Use JPEG (Score:2)
-E
Scratch that one... (Score:2)
Thought this one was over back when it was the "Compuserve-GIF" issue. Guess I was wrong; can't be bothered to beat this horse any more.
Patents are GOOD. (Score:2)
Have you ever heard of trade secrets? Trade secrets are the equivalent of proprietary formats. They don't allow your competitors to make use of your innovative new ideas. Patents are open. Anyone can use a patented method. Patents are the nineteenth century equivalent of open source.
Admittedly, the area of sofware patents is somewhat murky waters, but in general patents are a GOOD THING. Without patents there would be no incentive for inventors and innovators to publish their work, and a strong incentive not to publish (since they would have a monopoly, until someone could reverse engineer their product).
Re:GIFs are so out of date (Score:2)
JPGs are total overkill for this comic (>10 colours/frame, no antialiasing, etc.) PNGs would work, except they're not supported nearly as far-spread as gifs.
Re:We need a free alternitive to PDF anyway. (Score:2)
You can have JPEG-compressed images in PDF documents already. As for "PNG compression", there's no such thing. If you're talking about Flate, PDF 1.3 supports that too.
Re:No, none of this is really at Unisys site, AFAI (Score:2)
If you use any of the types of images specified above on your Web site that you received from an unlicensed software developer or service, you should have a license from Unisys
Please read it again. It means that if you use an image I created for you, and I didn't pay unisys their $5000 tribute, YOU must pay it, even if I used a graphics editor from someone who DID pay the tribute.
Note that if I am your employee, one of us must pay the tribute. (and it wouldn't be ME!)
Re:Uhhh.... read Unisys's page, guys (Score:2)
Now, I'm not say'in nothing, but you know that accidents WILL happen. Everyone needs insurance...
From the same company that PROUDLY advertises that their employees are expected to work 24/7 wether they're at the office or not (the 'monitorhead' commercials).
Its un-enforcable... really. (Score:2)
Go to all of the government websites.. offshore websites.. private websites...
the courts would be FILLED... I don't believe ONE thing will come of it.
Re:Hrmm..... (Score:5)
Canada 800-387-6181
Canadian French 800-361-8097
From http://www.uscsc.unisys.com/contact.htm
Hrmm..... (Score:5)
http://corp2.unisys.com/LeadStor y/lzw-license.html [unisys.com]
It looks like this thing is for real, but there's a bit too much confusion. Essentially, it looks like a web site operator would need to get one of these licenses if they either write their own gif-making software or if the people/products that they use to get GIF's make the images without giving Unisys a piece of the cake. So, if you use Photoshop, you're fine. However, I'm not sure what the implications would be for something like the GIMP. Since I'm not sure if the creators of the GIMP paid Unisys their "fair share," I think it would be on me to pay the fee. Damn.
My best advice is for everyone (and I do mean everyone) to contact the Unisys Licensing Department at 215-986-5693 (or fax at 215-986-3090) to ensure that you're safe. If they expect me to pay anything, I'll be sure to keep whoever answers the phone talking for a couple hours. I'm sure they'll have enough people to handle a phone slashdotting. Or maybe not. We'll see.
Re:-Some- websites won't care... (Score:2)
What about PostScript and PDF? (Score:3)
I could care less if GIF bites the dust, but I'm more than a little perturbed about PDF. Does the PDF format define any alternate compression schemes?
A simple way to prevent them from suing (Score:3)
The Unisys patent is only on the process of compressing or decompressing via LZW. Images aren't covered. The reason they are going after websites, are to "protect" the website against liability if they use unlicensed products to create their GIFs.
Their website license is outlined here: Stupid Unisys page [unisys.com]
There's several solutions:
Re:You can't prevent anyone from suing (Score:2)
I have news for you: They can. The plaintiff in a civil suit is entitled to the defendant's evidence, or the plaintiff wins. The question isn't even close.
In fact, most law-school graduates, and a fair majority of judges, are bright enough to recognize that procuring a violation of your duties under the patent law is the same as violating them yourself. The tricks that work to avoid exporting crypto software don't work here.
"A good lawyer who does pro bono work." Imagine the scene: You go into a law office, and explain you want them to pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries, rents, and expenses, in order to defend a lawsuit you deliberately incurred because you assumed they'd bail you out for free. Instead of doing less-expensive work in defense of the rights of a genuinely poor person. And your chances of success are...?
Also, the ugly fact of American law is that it is in the hands of lawyers, judges, and legislators who sincerely believe there is no such thing as a frivolous lawsuit. To them, filing suit is a sacrament of a free people, like voting or going to high school. The system does not even admit that being sued costs defendants anything, lest plaintiffs and their lawyers be held accountable for abuses. A filing would have to be the obvious product of paranoid schizophrenia before your lawyer would expect to get sanctions for it. Effectively, there is no ethical limit on filing a lawsuit in America.
This does suggest that as Open Source assets become rich enough to invite legal predation (see the SW patent proliferation topic of 8/28), the community ought to set aside part of its IPO gold rush to defend itself.
Re:Patents are GOOD. (Score:2)
If Coca-Cola had been patented on some basis, the recipe would be available to everyone by now. I'm sure that company prefers the trade secret approach at this time...
Re:Ozone Hole is real, or why are the frogs dying? (Score:2)
This is such a non-issue (Score:2)
And everyone had who said it was time for a new vector based graphic format was correct too. However, how many such formats have those of us who pay attention to such things seen come and go. At current we have Flash and Shockwave for vector based graphics WITH animation (the only reason i use GIFs)AND interactivity. But everybody's dragging their feet about making them the standard, so they won't be. And 5 years from now GIF will still be around.
Re:Ozone Hole is real, or why are the frogs dying? (Score:2)
-Some- websites won't care... (Score:4)
Every blasted picture has the same silly tag attached, "no gifs due to patent problems".
It links to http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html, and talks about how they think GIFs suck and that they won't use them for various and sundry reasons, the gist of which essentially states that not doing so is both a defensive measure and a protest of the patent.
"RMS is an alarmist." "RMS is a fanatic." Looks like he hit it square on the head, folkses -- Unisys has officially Cracked Down on the use of their patent.
Not that I can figure out how this is going to profit Unisys one single dime. Is someone spiking the water?
Re:Clear things up (Score:2)
What we should really do is ask to negotiate a license, write down our revenues as $ 50 a month, and see what they do. After all, it would cost their attorneys more to draft the agreement than they'd get in a million lifetimes!
What amazes me is that a big corporation like Unisys, with plenty of legal firepower and what-not, does this kind of thing without thinking it through. Can they really afford to negotiate all the contracts they plan to negotiate, or file all the lawsuits they plan to file?
I doubt it. Hey, not even the Church of Scientology could.
D
----
Intellectual Property Blows (Score:2)
Re:Public Knowledge? (Score:2)
Re:When does the LZW patent expire? (Score:2)
the patent should expire in 2003..
https://www.mav.net/teddyr/syousif/ [mav.net]
gif2gif (Score:3)
just an idea..
greetings from vienna, austria.
mond.
Re:LZW 'sucks' anyways... (Score:2)
Re:Animation (Score:2)
Aren't films made up of series of jpegs called mjpegs? I seem to remember some software (Xing?) that made video too mjpeg while you worked with it (for obvious reasons, there are problems with cutting and stuff in mpeg video).
-
Re:This is dissapointing (Score:2)
Re:This is dissapointing (Score:2)
If you create a new algorithm, you can choose not to share the source with the world. Feel free to make money with it. But I doubt that it will be used a lot as the world is full of proprietary data formats.
If you want the world to use your algorithm, publish it. Many will love it and start using it. But you can't expect to sit on your butt for the rest of your life collecting money from that one idea of yours. Make own products using it. At least you have the edge because it was you who created the idea in the first place.
If in the end the whole world uses your algorithm, you won't have any problems whatsoever to get a good job. Think about it, this is exactly how Linus Torvalds did it and he's not whining. Instead, he has a nice steady paycheck at Transmeta and he can choose any place to work at.
Try being a vendor and dealing with these guys... (Score:2)
Because of our license agreement with UNISYS, all of our customers are required to register with them before they can use our software. (We did this because we could not afford to license the technology out right.) Basically they have to get a special code to enter into our software before the GIF stuff will work. They also require some of our customers to pay an extra fee WHICH THEY DETERMINE ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS! "Hmmm, how much you got?"
The worst part is most of our customers are non-profit government entities who don't have a lot of money to start with. In these cases UNISYS says that they can get the code for free, but requires them to pay a 500 dollar processing fee.
grr....
MNG is the way, my brother! (Score:2)
:-) It
The spec is finalised, which is cool. Now we just have to wait for some cool hacker to put it in Mozilla. Screw IE, it can't even show PNGs semi-properly, except on Win32 platforms (Mac, etc, ports are b0rked).
Two things.... (Score:2)
2) Exactly what should we do as web site operators? I realize that the best thing is to switch everything to .png, however, the question is when, if ever? (I do plan to, myself). I know that Burn all Gifs day is yet set, but question is, when if any is Unisys Police going to start combing the web sites? Right now is not the best time for me (defense is within a month) though I'll find the time if the UP will be out soon enough...
Re:Dont bash GIF on its technical merits (Score:2)
--
Ian Peters
Re:gif2gif (Score:2)
Note that they claim that a product that licenses the GIF format doesn't necessarily confer a license on it's output. For that, you must negotiate with them seperatly (for a lot more $$$ I'll bet).
Re:Intellectual Property Blows (Score:3)
Part I
You "argument" lacks all logic. You seem to imply that because one doesn't believe in IP, that one is a Marxist. This does not follow. The set of people who don't believe in IP is not identical with the set of Marxists. For example, many anarchists do not believe in IP, but are definitely not Marxists. 2nd, "Everyone should be..." does not follow from "You believe no one ..."
Part II
Regarding another thread -- the one with the twit "Tom" asking how he was supposed to feed his family, blah blah blah -- I'm going to assume (perhaps mistakenly, but oh well) that your views overlap to some extent with Tom's.
The whole "anti-IP people are Marxists, commies, etc." is bogus. One could easily make the argument that instead it is those looking for IP protection ("intellectual property" -- how can you "own" something in your head ... can someone steal it so that you no longer have it?) who are supporters of a strong, centralized government -- a government which provides so-called IP-trade-barriers and time-limited-subsidies (you get to have this idea all to your little lonesome for 17 years ...). A government that encourages monopolies in a so-called open/free market could hardly be called a supporter of free-market capitalism, which is what so many of the pro-IP people around here so vehemently support (although not necessarily all).
Part III (getting off topic)
I find it hard if not impossible to believe that Tom or anybody else working with algorithms (ooh --- that is, people writing computer programs) has a right to any patents on such algorithms and such. There is the BS argument "if Einstein and Newton wanted to share their ideas, fine, but I don't have to share mine ... don't take away my freedom". 1) Einstein and Newton didn't have any patent-able ideas --- no 'inventions', no specific processes. 2) Such algorithms are quite often merely applications of already-known mathematical relations, etc. How can you 'own' work somebody else did months, years, decades, etc. ago. That's called a free-ride. "Ooh look, I made a copy of the Mona Lisa, but I changed her smile a bit. Now, nobody else can make a copy with a smile like this, it's *mine*." You may have derived something from something else, but as long as that which is derived has no physical existence (scratches on paper or impulses on a magnetic medium notwithstanding), I find it very difficult to believe that such 'results' can be called 'property', and futhermore, giving them so-called 'IP Protection' sounds like a 'free ride' to me. Your freedom isn't being taken away -- you're not losing property, as you never owned it; but patents do take away the freedom of others (to independently come up with something, then have others tell them, 'no, you can't use that idea, someone else "owns it" already.')
Part IV (closing remarks)
A final note: who owns all these patents? Not family-feeding, 'God fearing' (sarcasm) Americans -- rather, it's the mega-corporations that employ them: IBM, MS, Apple, Unisys, Intel, Motorola, Xerox, etc. It is a myth that patents help the lonely little inventor/programmer -- that may have been the case once, but it sure doesn't seem that way now.
--Andra
---
Re:Hrmm..... (Score:2)
Although I do admit one thing - if several thousand people start calling Unisys, then some really clueless PHB type might just see that as several thousand X 5K, and decide to keep it too.
This whole thing is rediculous, and in my view (IANAL) unenforceable - if you figure that there are several million sites in the US alone that use GIF images (GEOCities, AOL, @HOME to name just a few), does even a VERY large company like Unisys have enough resources to make this meaningful?