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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gif.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gif.html index 55904db..da8426a 100644 --- a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gif.html +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gif.html @@ -1,21 +1,32 @@ <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> -<!-- Parent-Version: 1.86 --> +<!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> +<!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> +<!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays laws patents" --> +<!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> <title>Why There Are No GIF Files on GNU Web Pages - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> +<style type="text/css" media="print,screen"><!-- +a.ftn { font-size: .94em; } +--></style> <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/gif.translist" --> <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> +<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" --> +<!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> +<!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> +<div class="article reduced-width"> <h2>Why There Are No GIF Files on GNU Web Pages</h2> +<div class="thin"></div> - -<blockquote><p>There is no special patent threat to GIF format nowadays +<div class="introduction"> +<p><em>There is no special patent threat to GIF format nowadays as far as we know; <a href="#venuenote">the patents that were used to attack GIF have expired</a>. Nonetheless, this article will remain pertinent as long as programs can be forbidden by patents, since the same sorts of things could happen in any area of computing. See -<a href="/server/fsf-html-style-sheet.html#UseofGraphics"> our web -site policies regarding GIFs</a>, and -our <a href="/server/standards/">web guidelines</a>.</p></blockquote> - +<a href="/server/standards/gnu-website-guidelines.html#UseofGraphics">our +website policies regarding GIFs</a>.</em></p> +</div> +<hr class="no-display" /> <p> There are no GIFs on the GNU web site because of the @@ -31,8 +42,8 @@ GNU does not use it or its format. 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. -<sup><a id="returnnote" href="#venuenote">1</a></sup> Until then, +expiration date seems to be 1 October 2006 <a class="ftn" +href="#venuenote">[1]</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. @@ -61,7 +72,7 @@ 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”.</p></blockquote> +including “Freeware.”</p></blockquote> <p> Unfortunately, this doesn't permit @@ -83,10 +94,10 @@ terms. </p> <p> -The <a href="http://www.fsf.org">Free Software Foundation</a> is a +The <a href="https://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://shop.fsf.org/">CD-ROMs</a> -is not “profit”. Perhaps this means we could include +income from our sales of <a href="https://shop.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, @@ -197,7 +208,7 @@ patent-free compressed format, not large pseudo-GIFs. </p> <p> -The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics">PNG +The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics">PNG format</a> is a patent-free compressed format. We hope it will become widely supported; then we will use it. We do provide PNG versions of most of the <a href="/graphics/graphics.html">images on this server</a>. @@ -208,7 +219,7 @@ For more information about the GIF patent problems, see <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150329143651/http://progfree.org/Patents/patents.html">the League for Programming Freedom GIF page</a>. Through that page you can find more information about the <a -href="http://endsoftpatents.org/">problem of software patents in +href="https://endsoftwarepatents.org/">problem of software patents in general.</a> </p> @@ -218,14 +229,17 @@ uncompressed gifs to circumvent the Unisys patent. </p> <p> -<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20171203193534/http://burnallgifs.org/">http://burnallgifs.org</a> is a +<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20171203193534/http://burnallgifs.org/"> +burnallgifs.org</a> is a web site devoted to discouraging the use of GIF files on the web. </p> +<div class="column-limit"></div> -<h3>Footnote:</h3> - -<p><a href="#returnnote" id="venuenote">1.</a> We were able to search +<h3 class="footnote">Footnote</h3> +<ol> +<li id="venuenote"> +<p>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 @@ -238,11 +252,14 @@ interfering with the use of static GIFs.</p> might cover them. However, we have not heard reports of threats against use of animated GIFs. Any software can be threatened by patents, but we have no reason to consider animated GIFs to be in -particular danger — no particular reason to shun them.</p> +particular danger—no particular reason to shun them.</p> +</li> +</ol> +</div> </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> -<div id="footer"> +<div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> <div class="unprintable"> <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a @@ -260,16 +277,33 @@ href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> - <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of + <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of our web pages, see <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a>. --> Please see the <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for -information on coordinating and submitting translations of this article.</p> +information on coordinating and contributing translations of this article.</p> </div> -<p>Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2018 Free +<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to + files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should + be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this + without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. + Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the + document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the + document was modified, or published. + + If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. + Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying + years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable + year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including + being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). + + There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers + Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> + +<p>Copyright © 1997-1999, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2013, 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p> <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" @@ -280,7 +314,7 @@ Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> <p class="unprintable">Updated: <!-- timestamp start --> -$Date: 2018/12/15 14:02:38 $ +$Date: 2021/11/03 13:26:25 $ <!-- timestamp end --> </p> </div> |