[News] Serious allegations about H&P | ANN.lu |
Posted on 08-Nov-2001 14:17 GMT by Christian Kemp | 164 comments View flat View list |
Amigo follows up on serious allegations about H&P and says: "I also just asked Unisys as it says here, and am waiting for a reply. If true, H&P could probably be forced to close."
[ If H&P indeed didn't pay royalties for Unisys' GIF algorithm, they might not be forced to close per se, but if this is indeed true, and Unisys decides to sue, they might have to pay some serious fines. Also note that while this is not in unmoderated, it's highly speculative, unconfirmed and generally should be taken with the usual grain of salt - CK ]
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List of all comments to this articleSorted by date, most recent at bottom |
Comment 1 | Graham | | 08-Nov-2001 13:25 GMT |
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Serious allegations about H&P : Comment 2 of 164 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Graham on 08-Nov-2001 13:37 GMT | Right, it is the bottom two comments of the article in question (please mention this in the article, or cut-and-paste the relevant text next time please).
1) The GIF issue is with LZW compressed GIFs only.
2) This is because of a software patent (only enforceable in USA, not Europe)
3) GIF royalty fee is about $5000.
4) We should all use PNG anyway
So it depends on the status of the GIF datatype in H&Ps code. If it is licenced from someone else who has a license, then it is probably OK. Also depends on when the datatype was written, as Unisys were not charging fees until 1997 I believe. Earlier code would by definition be exempt. Whether or not this means that the code should be removed from OS3.5 and 3.9 I cannot comment on.
Still, I think you should have waited until you received a reply before posting it. Or contacted H&P directly and got a comment from them as well. |
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