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The GIF Format is Finally Patent-Free

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the happy-birthday dept.

tonymercmobily writes "Not many people noticed that the GIF file format is only now free from patents, as of the 1st of October 2006. Quick recap: first in 1999 Unisys tried to extort money from users and developers. Then, in 2003 the world hoped that the saga would finally be over. Then, in 2004, it was IBM's turn. Now, the SAGA seems to be over for real! Does anybody find Unisys' page on GIF as hilarious as I do...?"

4 of 369 comments (clear)

  1. Oh silly Gif by oskard · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Your outdated compression and obsolete alpha channels were not worth all those years of effort! Long live the network graphics!

    --
    Sigs are for Terrorists.
  2. Re:Happy October 1st by plague3106 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Taking pot shots at an idiot never really gets old.

  3. Re:Just in time... by mfrank · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    About your sig - Chavez's power base is the poor and uneducated. He's not going to do anything to reduce his power base.

  4. Re:Just in time... by NeMon'ess · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Then why has he implemented policies that help them?