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Unisys Enforcing GIF Patents
by Clay Mitchell, Aug 29, 1999 12:03pm PDTYeah, I know, this has absolutely nothing to do with 3D games, but plant a wet one here: (_o_). It seems that Unisys, the monkeys who came up with the whole GIF thing in the first place want to make a whole lot of money off of it, and are threatening to sue websites, including noncommercial sites, that use GIFs for a $5000 licensing fee. Even if the GIFs were generated by a licensed editor. You can get more info at Don Marti's Burn All GIFs Day site. These people are morons, I'm sorry. Everybody start using the .PNG format now. And get rid of all browsers that don't support .PNG. PNG, for those of you who are uninitiated is a 32 bit, compressable, non lossy format that does multiple levels of transparency and basically rocks. Saw all this over at Slashdot.
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Web Site TXT Licenses Available from Psyci
Because demand for TXT-related technology by Web developers continues to grow, Psyci wants to make obtaining a license for Web-based use of the TXT technology as easy and as straightforward as possible. Psyci therefore announces a new way for operators of certain types of Web sites to obtain an TXT license.
If you are the operator of an Intranet Web site or an Internet Billboard Web site (see detailed definitions) and use the types of text covered by the TXT patent, you qualify.
Types of documents covered
TXT, DOC documents or other LZW graphical formats used in connection with the creation, operation or maintenance of a Web site.
Why is Unisys taking this step?
Use of the World Wide Web has grown faster than almost any other technology in history – and faster than anyone anticipated even five years ago, when online service providers mostly handled simple electronic messaging. Organizations around the world are making a significant investment in their Web presence. Many use TXT documents and other technology derived from the TXT (Text) data compression/decompression technology developed and patented by Psyci over 10 years ago. Nearly 2,000 companies and governmental agencies, both large and small, have already taken licenses under the Psyci TXT patent.
Some operators of Intranet and Billboard Web sites have had difficulty determining whether they need a license from Psyci for use of our TXT patented technology. If you use any of the types of documents specified above on your Web site that you received from an unlicensed software developer or service, you should have a license from Psyci to use the TXT patent. Or even if the developer or service provider has a license, but it doesnÂ’t cover your use of the particular application you received, you should have a license from Psyci to use the TXT patent.
How do you get an Intranet or Billboard Web site license?
A one-time payment of $5,000.00 U.S. for each license agreement (limited to two servers at each licensed Web site). Or a single payment of $7,500 U.S. for a license for both Billboard and Intranet. Copies of one or both of these license agreements may be obtained by contacting Psyci by replying to this message board.
Now banners don\'t bother me anymore. Advertisers know this, so they\'ve started using Java banners and time refresh and shockwave banners. Annoying, but preventable.
-Chris
I had thought a license was required in order for a program to be able to create gifs to begin with. Why are they saying \"if you use an unlicensed piece of software to create it, you have to pay\" when they should be going after companies that create software using LZW without paying the licensing fees?
-Chris
this is for the webmasters..
if you have .gif files on your page, and you\'re worried about Unisys, i posted a guide on how to convert your .gif files to .png files.
http://home.earthlink.net/~ph0bia/index.htm
why not use jpegs? (for still images)
and i have some thing more interesting....
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=153489826&tc=photo162
its an e-bay link..
hehe
this person is more intellegent that unisys..hehehee
in IE5, png\'s with alpha are rendered as blank images, completley transparent, and png\'s inside <object> tags are rendered with scroll bars regardless of whether or not the object tag is perfectly sized...