Gif files and copyright issues

[David A. Osborn]

I've heard that the gif file format is copyrighted and that there are issues
using it in your programs because of this. Is anyone aware of this? I am
writing an image program and it would be rather easy to added the
functionality for gifs, but I am concerned to due to this issues.

 

[m.posseth]

Hello David ,

This is exactly the reasson why they invented PNG as a replacement for GIF
,,, however GIF is so wide spread that this may take years, or the current
LZW copyright holders should start asking and claiming a fee for every GIF
image that is used ,,,, This would sure speed up the usage PNG on the web
( and beyond )

regards

Michel Posseth [MCP]

 

[Nick Malik [Microsoft]]

A few years ago, a company bought the rights to the GIF format and began
legal proceedings to get software authors to pay up if their software would
create GIF images. If I remember right, the fees were pretty steep. The
reaction from the web community was swift and sharp, with a huge drop in the
use of GIF images.

I have no idea what happened to the lawsuits, but no one would fault you for
avoiding that format.

--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.