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www/philosophy gif.html


From: John Sullivan
Subject: www/philosophy gif.html
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 00:10:31 +0000

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     John Sullivan <johnsu01>        06/08/15 00:10:31

Modified files:
        philosophy     : gif.html 

Log message:
        Undo my last commit catastrophe.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/gif.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.30&r2=1.31

Patches:
Index: gif.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/gif.html,v
retrieving revision 1.30
retrieving revision 1.31
diff -u -b -r1.30 -r1.31
--- gif.html    8 Aug 2006 22:29:01 -0000       1.30
+++ gif.html    15 Aug 2006 00:10:28 -0000      1.31
@@ -333,342 +333,7 @@
       <p>
         Updated:
         <!-- timestamp start -->
-        $Date: 2006/08/08 22:29:01 $ $Author: johnsu01 $
-        <!-- timestamp end -->
-      </p>
-    </div>
-=======
-  <head>
-    <title>Why There Are No GIF files on GNU Web Pages</title>
-    <meta http-equiv="content-type" content='text/html; charset=utf-8' />
-    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/gnu.css" />
-    <link rev="made" href="mailto:address@hidden"; />
-  </head>
-
-  <!-- This document is in XML, and xhtml 1.0 -->
-  <!-- Please make sure to properly nest your tags -->
-  <!-- and ensure that your final document validates -->
-  <!-- consistent with W3C xhtml 1.0 and CSS standards -->
-  <!-- See validator.w3.org -->
-
-  <body>
-    <p>
-      <a href="#translations">Translations</a> of this page
-    </p>
-    <h3>Why There Are No GIF files on GNU Web Pages</h3>
-    <p>
-      <a href="/graphics/philosophicalgnu.html"><img 
src="/graphics/philosophical-gnu-sm.jpg" alt=" [image of a Philosophical Gnu] " 
/></a>
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-
-    <p>
-      There are no GIFs on the GNU web site because of the patents (Unisys
-      and IBM) covering the LZW compression algorithm which is used in
-      making GIF files.  These patents make it impossible to have free
-      software to generate proper GIFs.  They also apply to the
-      <strong>compress</strong> program, which is why GNU does not use
-      it or its format.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      Unisys and IBM both applied for patents in 1983.  Unisys (and
-      perhaps IBM) applied for these patents in a number of countries.
-      Of the places whose patent databases we were able to search, the
-      latest expiration date seems to be 1 October 2006
-      <a name="returnnote" href="#venuenote"><sup>1</sup></a>.  Until then,
-      anyone who releases a free program for making GIF files is likely
-      to be sued.  We don't know any reason to think that the patent
-      owners would lose these lawsuits.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      If we released such a program, Unisys and IBM might think it wiser
-      (for public relations reasons) not to sue a charity like the FSF.
-      They could instead sue the users of the program, including the
-      companies who redistribute GNU software.  We feel it would not be
-      responsible behavior for us to set up this situation.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      Many people think that Unisys has given permission for distributing
-      free software to make GIF format.  Unfortunately that is not what
-      Unisys has actually done.  Here is what Unisys actually said about
-      the matter in 1995:
-    </p>
-
-    <blockquote>
-      <p>
-        <strong>Unisys does not require licensing, or fees to be paid,
-        for non-commercial, non-profit GIF-based applications, including
-        those for use on the on-line services.  Concerning developers of
-        software for the Internet network, the same principle applies.
-        Unisys will not pursue previous inadvertent infringement by developers
-        producing versions of software products for the Internet prior to
-        1995. The company does not require licensing, or fees to be paid
-        for non-commercial, non-profit offerings on the Internet, including
-        "Freeware".</strong>
-      </p>
-    </blockquote>
-
-    <p>
-      Unfortunately, this doesn't permit
-      <a href="/philosophy/free-sw.html">free software</a>, only
-      <a href="/philosophy/categories.html#semi-freeSoftware">semi-free
-      software</a> which cannot be used in a free operating system such
-      as GNU.  It also does not permit <em>at all</em> the use of LZW
-      for other purposes such as compression of files.  This is why we
-      think it is still best to reject LZW, and switch to alternatives
-      such as <a href="/software/gzip/gzip.html">GNU zip</a> and PNG format.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      <a href="/philosophy/selling.html">Commercial redistribution of
-      free software</a> is very important, and we want the GNU system as
-      a whole to be redistributed commercially.  This means we can't add
-      a GIF-generating program to GNU, not under the Unisys terms.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      The <a href="/fsf/fsf.html">Free Software Foundation</a> is a
-      non-commercial, non-profit organization, so strictly speaking the
-      income from our sales of <a href="http://order.fsf.org/";>CD-ROMs</a>
-      is not "profit".  Perhaps this means we could include a GIF
-      program on our CD-ROM and claim to be acting within the scope of
-      the Unisys permission--or perhaps not.  But since we know that
-      other redistributors of GNU would be unable to include it, doing
-      this would not be very useful.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      Shortly after Unisys made its announcement, when the net in general
-      was reassured thinking that Unisys had given permission for free
-      GIF-generating software, we wrote to the Unisys legal department
-      asking for clarification of these issues.  We did not receive a
-      response.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      Even if Unisys really did give permission for free software to
-      generate GIFs, we would still have to deal with the IBM patent.
-      Both the IBM and the Unisys patents cover the same "invention"--the
-      LZW compression algorithm.  (This could reflect an error on the
-      part of the US Patent and Trademark Office, which is famous for
-      incompetence and poor judgment.)
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      Decoding GIFs is a different issue.  The Unisys and IBM patents
-      are both written in such a way that they do not apply to a program
-      which can only uncompress LZW format and cannot compress.  Therefore
-      we can and will include support for displaying GIF files in GNU
-      software.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      Given this situation, we could still include GIF files in our web
-      pages if we wanted to.  Many other people would be happy to generate
-      them for us, and we would not be sued for having GIF files on our
-      server.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      But we feel that if we can't distribute the software to enable
-      people to generate GIF files properly, then we should not have
-      other people run such software for us.  Besides, if we can't provide
-      software in GNU to generate GIF files, we have to recommend an
-      alternative.  We ourselves should use the alternative that we
-      recommend.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      In 1999, Unisys had the following to say about the issue of their
-      patent:
-    </p>
-
-    <blockquote>
-      <p>
-        <strong>Unisys has frequently been asked whether a Unisys license
-        is required in order to use LZW software obtained by downloading
-        from the Internet or from other sources. The answer is simple. In
-        all cases, a written license agreement or statement signed by an
-        authorized Unisys representative is required from Unisys for all
-        use, sale or distribution of any software (including so-called
-        "freeware") and/or hardware providing LZW conversion capability
-        (for example, downloaded software). </strong> 
-      </p>
-    </blockquote>
-
-    <p>
-      With this statement, Unisys is trying to take back what they said
-      in 1995 when they gave parts of the patent to the public. The
-      legality of such a move is questionable.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      A further issue is that the LZW patents--and software patents in
-      general--are an offense against the freedom of programmers generally,
-      and all programmers need to work together against software patents.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      So even if we could find a solution to enable the free software
-      community to generate GIFs, that isn't really a solution, not for
-      the problem as a whole.  The solution is switching to another format
-      and not using GIF any more.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      Therefore, we don't use GIF, and we hope you won't use it either.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      It is possible to make non-compressed images that act like GIFs,
-      in that they work with programs that decode GIF format.  This can
-      be done without infringing patents.  These pseudo-GIFs are useful
-      for some purposes.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      It is also possible to create GIFs using a patent-free run length
-      encoding but this doesn't achieve the compression that one normally
-      expects in a GIF.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      We decided not to use these pseudo-GIFs on our web site because
-      they are not a satisfactory solution to the community's problem.
-      They work, but they are very large.  What the web needs is a
-      patent-free compressed format, not large pseudo-GIFs.
-    </p>
-
-    <p> 
-      <a href="http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/index.html";>PNG format</a>
-      is a patent-free compressed format.  We hope it will become widely
-      supported; then we will use it.  We do have
-      <a href="/graphics/graphics.html">PNG versions</a> of the images
-      on this server.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      For more information about the GIF patent problems, see
-      <a href="http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/Gif/Gif.html";>the League
-      for Programming Freedom GIF page</a>.  Through that page you can
-      find more information about the problem of software patents in
-      general.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      <a href="http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/pngapbr.html";>The browser
-      support page</a> lists browsers which are compatible with the PNG
-      format and comments on how well they support it.  
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-      There's a library called 
-
-
-      <a href="http://ca.geocities.com/libungif/";>
-        libungif</a> that reads gif files and writes uncompressed gifs to
-        circumvent the Unisys patent.  
-    </p>
-
-    <p> 
-      <a href="http://burnallgifs.org";>http://burnallgifs.org</a> is a
-      website devoted to discouraging the use of GIF files on your website.
-    </p>
-
-    <hr />
-    <p> Footnote:
-    <br />
-    <a href="#returnnote" id="venuenote">1.</a> We were able to search the
-    patent databases of the USA, Canada, Japan, and the European Union. The
-    Unisys patent expired on 20 June 2003 in the USA, in Europe it
-    expired on 18 June 2004, in Japan the patent expired on 20 June
-    2004 and in Canada it expired on 7 July 2004. The U.S. IBM
-    patent expires 11 August 2006, The Software Freedom Law Center says that
-    after 1 October 2006, there will be no significant patent claims
-    interfering with employment of the GIF format.</p>
-    <hr />
-
-    <h4><a href="/philosophy/philosophy.html">Other Texts to Read</a></h4>
-
-    <!-- All pages on the GNU web server should have the section about    -->
-    <!-- verbatim copying.  Please do NOT remove this without talking     -->
-    <!-- with the webmasters first. --> 
-    <!-- Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the document 
-->
-    <!-- and that it is like this "2001, 2002" not this "2001-2002." -->
-
-    <p style="font-size: 10pt;">
-      <a id="translations"></a>
-      <b>Translations of this page</b>:<br />
-
-      <!-- Please keep this list alphabetical, and in the original -->
-      <!-- language if possible, otherwise default to English -->
-      <!-- If you do not have it English, please comment what the -->
-      <!-- English is.  If you add a new language here, please -->
-      <!-- advise address@hidden and add it to -->
-      <!--    - in /home/www/bin/nightly-vars either TAGSLANG or WEBLANG -->
-      <!--    - in /home/www/html/server/standards/README.translations.html -->
-      <!--      one of the lists under the section "Translations Underway" -->
-      <!--    - if there is a translation team, you also have to add an alias 
-->
-      <!--      to mail.gnu.org:/com/mailer/aliases -->
-      <!-- Please also check you have the 2 letter language code right versus 
-->
-      <!--     http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm -->
-
-      [
-      <a href="/philosophy/gif.ca.html">Catal&#x00e0;</a> <!-- Catalan -->
-      | <a href="/philosophy/gif.html">English</a>
-      | <a href="/philosophy/gif.de.html">Deutsch</a>          <!-- German -->
-      | <a href="/philosophy/gif.es.html">Espa&#x00f1;ol</a>   <!-- Spanish -->
-      | <a href="/philosophy/gif.fr.html">Fran&#x00e7;ais</a>  <!-- French -->
-
-      <!-- Japanese -->
-      | <a href="/philosophy/gif.ja.html">&#x65e5;&#x672c;&#x8a9e;</a>
-
-      | <a href="/philosophy/gif.ko.html">&#xd55c;&#xad6d;&#xc5b4;</a><!-- 
Korean -->
-      | <a href="/philosophy/gif.pl.html">Polski</a>           <!-- Polish -->
-      | <a href="/philosophy/gif.ro.html">Rom&#x00e2;n&#x0103;</a>     <!-- 
Romanian -->
-
-      <!-- Russian/Russkij -->
-      | <a 
href="/philosophy/gif.ru.html">&#1056;&#1091;&#1089;&#1089;&#1082;&#1080;&#1081;</a>
-      | <a 
href="/philosophy/gif.sr.html">&#x0421;&#x0440;&#x043f;&#x0441;&#x043a;&#x0438;</a>
 <!-- Serbian -->
-      ]
-    </p>
-    <div class="copyright">
-      <p>
-        Return to the <a href="/home.html">GNU Project home page</a>.
-      </p>
-
-      <p>
-        Please send FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to 
-        <a href="mailto:address@hidden";><em>address@hidden</em></a>.
-        There are also <a href="/home.html#ContactInfo">other ways to 
contact</a> 
-        the FSF.
-        <br />
-        Please send broken links and other corrections (or suggestions) to
-        <a href="mailto:address@hidden";><em>address@hidden</em></a>.
-      </p>
-
-      <p>
-        Please see the 
-        <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
-        README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting
-        translations of this article.
-      </p>
-
-      <p>
-        Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
-        51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110, USA
-        <br />
-        Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
-        permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is 
-        preserved.
-      </p>
-
-      <p>
-        Updated:
-        <!-- timestamp start -->
-        $Date: 2006/08/08 22:29:01 $ $Author: johnsu01 $
+        $Date: 2006/08/15 00:10:28 $ $Author: johnsu01 $
         <!-- timestamp end -->
       </p>
     </div>




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