From 1ae0306a3cf2ea27f60b2d205789994d260c2cce Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christian Grothoff Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2020 13:29:45 +0200 Subject: add i18n FSFS --- talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gif.html | 289 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 289 insertions(+) create mode 100644 talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gif.html (limited to 'talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gif.html') diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gif.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gif.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55904db --- /dev/null +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gif.html @@ -0,0 +1,289 @@ + + +Why There Are No GIF Files on GNU Web Pages +- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation + + +

Why There Are No GIF Files on GNU Web Pages

+ + +

There is no special patent threat to GIF format nowadays +as far as we know; the patents that were used to +attack GIF have expired. 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 + our web +site policies regarding GIFs, and +our web guidelines.

+ + +

+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 compress program, which is why +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. +1 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. +

+ +

+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. +

+ +

+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: +

+ +

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”.

+ +

+Unfortunately, this doesn't permit +free software which can be used +in a free operating system such as GNU. It also does not +permit at all 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 GNU Gzip +and PNG. +

+ +

+Commercial redistribution of free +software 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. +

+ +

+The Free Software Foundation is a +non-commercial, non-profit organization, so strictly speaking the +income from our sales of CD-ROMs +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. +

+ +

+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. +

+ +

+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.) +

+ +

+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. +

+ +

+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. +

+ +

+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. +

+ +

+In 1999, Unisys had the following to say about the issue of their +patent: +

+ +

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).

+ +

+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. +

+ +

+A further issue is that the LZW patents—and computational idea +patents in general—are an offense against the freedom of +programmers generally, and all programmers need to work together +to protect +software from patents. +

+ +

+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. +

+ +

+Therefore, we don't use GIF, and we hope you won't use it +either. +

+ +

+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. +

+ +

+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. +

+ +

+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. +

+ +

+The PNG +format 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 images on this server. +

+ +

+For more information about the GIF patent problems, +see the League for +Programming Freedom GIF page. Through that page you +can find more information about the problem of software patents in +general. +

+ +

+There is a library called libungif that reads gif files and writes +uncompressed gifs to circumvent the Unisys patent. +

+ +

+http://burnallgifs.org is a +web site devoted to discouraging the use of GIF files on +the web. +

+ +

Footnote:

+ +

1. 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 the use of static GIFs.

+ +

Animated GIFs are a different story. We do not know what patents +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.

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