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www/philosophy gif.html
|
From: |
Yavor Doganov |
|
Subject: |
www/philosophy gif.html |
|
Date: |
Mon, 16 Apr 2007 21:17:53 +0000 |
CVSROOT: /web/www
Module name: www
Changes by: Yavor Doganov <yavor> 07/04/16 21:17:53
Modified files:
philosophy : gif.html
Log message:
* Use mdash, {l,r}dquo and abbr.
* Standartized translations list; added link to the Hebrew
translation.
CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/gif.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.36&r2=1.37
Patches:
Index: gif.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/gif.html,v
retrieving revision 1.36
retrieving revision 1.37
diff -u -b -r1.36 -r1.37
--- gif.html 1 Dec 2006 01:27:51 -0000 1.36
+++ gif.html 16 Apr 2007 21:17:36 -0000 1.37
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
-<h2>Why There Are No GIF files on GNU Web Pages</h2>
+<h2>Why There Are No <abbr title="Graphics Interchange Format">GIF</abbr>
files on GNU Web Pages</h2>
<p>
<strong>While this story is a historical
@@ -11,15 +11,17 @@
particular patents are now no longer a concern (see
<a href="#venuenote">footnote</a> below). For details of our website
<a href="/server/fsf-html-style-sheet.html#UseofGraphics">policies
-regarding GIFs</a>, see our <a href="/server/standards/">web
+regarding <abbr>GIF</abbr>s</a>, see our <a href="/server/standards/">web
guidelines</a>.</strong>
</p>
<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
+ There are no <abbr>GIF</abbr>s on the GNU web site because of
+ the patents (Unisys and IBM) covering
+ the <abbr title="Lempel-Ziv-Welch">LZW</abbr> compression
+ algorithm which is used in making <abbr>GIF</abbr> files. These
+ patents make it impossible to have free software to generate
+ proper <abbr>GIF</abbr>s. They also apply to the
<strong>compress</strong> program, which is why GNU does not use
it or its format.
</p>
@@ -30,9 +32,10 @@
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.
+ then, anyone who releases a free program for
+ making <abbr>GIF</abbr> files is likely to be sued. We don't
+ know any reason to think that the patent owners would lose these
+ lawsuits.
</p>
<p>
@@ -44,92 +47,98 @@
</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:
+ Many people think that Unisys has given permission for
+ distributing free software to make <abbr>GIF</abbr> format.
+ Unfortunately that is not what Unisys has actually done. Here
+ is what Unisys actually said about the matter in 1995:
</p>
<p>
- <q>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".</q>
+ <q>Unisys does not require licensing, or fees to be paid, for
+ non-commercial, non-profit <abbr>GIF</abbr>-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”.</q>
</p>
<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.
+ 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 <abbr>LZW</abbr> for other purposes such as compression of
+ files. This is why we think it is still best to
+ reject <abbr>LZW</abbr>, and switch to alternatives such
+ as <a href="/software/gzip/gzip.html">GNU zip</a> and
+ <abbr title="Portable Network Graphics">PNG</abbr> 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.
+ 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 <abbr>GIF</abbr>-generating program to GNU, not
+ under the Unisys terms.
</p>
<p>
- The <a href="http://www.fsf.org";>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.
+ The <a href="http://www.fsf.org";>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 <abbr>GIF</abbr> 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.
+ Shortly after Unisys made its announcement, when the net in
+ general was reassured thinking that Unisys had given permission
+ for free <abbr>GIF</abbr>-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.)
+ generate <abbr>GIF</abbr>s, we would still have to deal with the
+ IBM patent. Both the IBM and the Unisys patents cover the same
+ “invention”—the <abbr>LZW</abbr> 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.
+ Decoding <abbr>GIF</abbr>s 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 <abbr>LZW</abbr>
+ format and cannot compress. Therefore we can and will include
+ support for displaying <abbr>GIF</abbr> 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.
+ Given this situation, we could still include <abbr>GIF</abbr>
+ 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 <abbr>GIF</abbr> 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.
+ people to generate <abbr>GIF</abbr> 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 <abbr>GIF</abbr>
+ files, we have to recommend an alternative. We ourselves should
+ use the alternative that we recommend.
</p>
<p>
@@ -139,13 +148,14 @@
<p>
<q>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). </q>
+ is required in order to use <abbr>LZW</abbr> 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 <abbr>LZW</abbr> conversion capability (for
+ example, downloaded software). </q>
</p>
<p>
@@ -155,88 +165,94 @@
</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.
+ A further issue is that the <abbr>LZW</abbr> 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.
+ community to generate <abbr>GIF</abbr>s, that isn't really a
+ solution, not for the problem as a whole. The solution is
+ switching to another format and not using <abbr>GIF</abbr> any
+ more.
</p>
<p>
- Therefore, we don't use GIF, and we hope you won't use it either.
+ Therefore, we don't use <abbr>GIF</abbr>, 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
+ It is possible to make non-compressed images that act
+ like <abbr>GIF</abbr>s, in that they work with programs that
+ decode <abbr>GIF</abbr> format. This can be done without
+ infringing patents. These pseudo-<abbr>GIF</abbr>s 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.
+ It is also possible to create <abbr>GIF</abbr>s using a
+ patent-free run length encoding but this doesn't achieve the
+ compression that one normally expects in a <abbr>GIF</abbr>.
</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.
+ We decided not to use these pseudo-<abbr>GIF</abbr>s 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-<abbr>GIF</abbr>s.
</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.
+ <a href="http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/index.html";><abbr>PNG</abbr>
+ 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"><abbr>PNG</abbr> 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.
+ For more information about the <abbr>GIF</abbr> patent problems,
+ see <a href="http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/Gif/Gif.html";>the
+ League for Programming Freedom <abbr>GIF</abbr> 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.
+ support page</a> lists browsers which are compatible with
+ the <abbr>PNG</abbr> 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.
+ 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.
+ website devoted to discouraging the use of <abbr>GIF</abbr>
+ files on your website.
</p>
<h3>Footnote:</h3>
- <p><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 expired 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>
+ <p><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 expired 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 <abbr>GIF</abbr> format.</p>
</div>
@@ -248,7 +264,7 @@
<p>
Please send FSF & 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>
+ There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
the FSF.
<br />
Please send broken links and other corrections (or suggestions) to
@@ -257,24 +273,24 @@
<p>
Please see the
- <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+ <a href="/server/standards/README.translations">Translations
README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting
translations of this article.
</p>
<p>
- Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2006 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.
+ Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2006, 2007 Free Software
+ Foundation, Inc.,</p>
+ <address>51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110, USA</address>
+ <p>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: 2006/12/01 01:27:51 $ $Author: karl $
+ $Date: 2007/04/16 21:17:36 $
<!-- timestamp end -->
</p>
</div>
@@ -297,26 +313,33 @@
<!-- http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm -->
<ul>
- <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.ca.html">Català</a></li> <!--
Catalan -->
- <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.html">English</a></li>
- <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.de.html">Deutsch</a></li> <!--
German -->
- <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.es.html">Español</a></li> <!--
Spanish -->
- <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.fr.html">Français</a></li> <!--
French -->
-
+ <!-- Catalan -->
+ <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.ca.html">Català</a> [ca]</li>
+ <!-- German -->
+ <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.de.html">Deutsch</a> [de]</li>
+ <!-- English -->
+ <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.html">English</a> [en]</li>
+ <!-- Spanish -->
+ <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.es.html">Español</a> [es]</li>
+ <!-- French -->
+ <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.fr.html">Français</a> [fr]</li>
+ <!-- Hebrew -->
+ <li><a
href="/philosophy/gif.he.html">עברית</a> [he]</li>
<!-- Japanese -->
- <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.ja.html">日本語</a></li>
-
- <li><a
href="/philosophy/gif.ko.html">한국어</a></li><!-- Korean -->
- <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.pl.html">Polski</a></li> <!--
Polish -->
- <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.ro.html">Română</a></li>
<!-- Romanian -->
-
- <!-- Russian/Russkij -->
- <li><a
href="/philosophy/gif.ru.html">Русский</a></li>
- <li><a
href="/philosophy/gif.sr.html">Српски</a></li>
<!-- Serbian -->
+ <li><a
href="/philosophy/gif.ja.html">日本語</a> [ja]</li>
+ <!-- Korean -->
+ <li><a
href="/philosophy/gif.ko.html">한국어</a> [ko]</li>
+ <!-- Polish -->
+ <li><a href="/philosophy/gif.pl.html">Polski</a> [pl]</li>
+ <!-- Romanian -->
+ <li><a
href="/philosophy/gif.ro.html">Română</a> [ro]</li>
+ <!-- Russian -->
+ <li><a
href="/philosophy/gif.ru.html">Русский</a> [ru]</li>
+ <!-- Serbian -->
+ <li><a
href="/philosophy/gif.sr.html">Српски</a> [sr]</li>
</ul>
</div>
-
</div>
</body>
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