[ale] Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] Re: [svlug] EVENT: Burn All GIFs Day.

[Steve Baker]

Kevin Brannen wrote:
> 
> Steve Baker wrote:
> >
> > It's going to be a very boring web if everyone's pages have
> > only rectangular and non-animated images.
> 
> As most animated gif's I see are ads, I'd be happy with that result. :-)

Well yes - but the loss of transparency *IS* serious.

> I'd really like to see legal analysis about not trying to enforce the
> patient for most of the patient's lifespan, then attempt to enforce it.
> I've always heard that it then becomes unenforceable; but I'd like to
> hear that from a reputable lawyer. :-)

Yes - I believe there is some rule about 'use it or lose it' - but
Unisys has made some small efforts to assert it's ownership - this
could be kindof a grey area.

As usual, they set the license fee just low enough ($5k) that
the sort of big companies who have the resources to fight this
will probably prefer to pay it and save all the hassle.

As for the rest of us - we'll probably also be left alone until
a site becomes mildly well known - and THEN they'll strike.

Think about this though. Who stands to benefit most from this?
Unisys won't - they'll piss off a lot of people, a few big sites
will cave in and pay the license, middle sized sites will probably
switch to PNG/JPG/whatever - and little sites will generally be
too small to pursue.

But, you know - a suspicious person would wonder whether the "DEAL"
that Unisys struck with Microsoft to let M$ use LZW everywhere
didn't include a clause to require Unisys to harass certain
freeware users of GIF.  That's the kind of dirty tactic I could
believe from M$ - and it's harder to believe from Unisys (who
already arrived at a deal with the freeware community a couple
of years ago).

Do we smell the work of the evil empire here?

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
sjbaker1 at airmail.net (home)  http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker
sjbaker at hti.com      (work)