Before this goes much further I recommend people *read* :-)
http://www.unisys.com/LeadStory/lzwinfo.html
for information on Unisys's attitude to the use of LZW, along with
http://www.compuserve.com/isd/news_rel/gif.html
for Compuserve's response to the new licencing deal.
As I read it Compuserve will only be charging *commercial*developers* of
programs which use GIF images whose programs are written after Jan 31st
1995. According their press release "CompuServe will not profit from
this service".
There is no general charge for storing GIFs or pulling them down from
other sites. This whole deal has been massively overhyped and there is a
lot of misinformation going around.
[BTW this in no way implies that I approve of Unisys's patenting of LZW
and the way they and Compuserve have handled the GIF issue. I also think
the development of a public domain GIF alternative could well be a good
idea]
Oh yes, for those proposing JPEG as an alternative --- I'm fairly sure
that IBM holds patents on the compression algorithms used :-)
Adrian
aids (adrianh@cogs.susx.ac.uk) ObDisclamer: Poplog used to pay my wages
Phone: +44 (0)273 678367 URL: http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/adrianh/