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PATENT_PROBLEMS
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1998-12-18
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Unisys has a patent on the LZW compressor used in gif images. Use of giflib
is highly discouraged as it may put you into legal difficulties with UniSys.
I take no responsibility for any liability you may incur by using this
software. If you must access gif files, use libungif (available from
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/graphics/), which writes uncompressed gifs
rather than gifs utilizing LZW compression.
Eric Raymond, the previous maintainer of giflib has this to say:
Note: due to Unisys's increasingly aggressive interpretation of its
patent claims on the LZW compression format, I can no longer recommend
the use of the GIFLIB library or utilities. GIFLIB may be withdrawn
in the near future.
For extended discussion of the situation, see
http://www.cloanto.com/users/mcb/19950127giflzw.html, The GIF
Controversy: A Software Developer's Perspective. Essentially,
since 1996 Unisys no longer exempts even `freeware' from its
licensing requirements. If you use this library in any way and Unisys
decides it doesn't like you, you could be open to lawsuit.