Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Unisys and GIFs: what it's all really about

Author:Jacob Levy
Posted:8/31/1999; 8:29:49 AM
Topic:Unisys and GIFs: what it's all really about
Msg #:10307
Prev/Next:10306 / 10308

Seems to me Unisys really does not want to dicker with web masters and sundry folks who use their patented technology, whether under license or not. They're really not interested if you use LZW to display longschlong.gif or bluedot.gif on your site.

So what do they really want?

Seems to me what they do want, and which is why this bugaboo springs its ugly head out of its hiding place every so often, is force software makers such as Adobe and Netscape/AOL to pony up for the license fees on the use of the patent. T'must be the time for a big contract renewal somewhere in software-land, that is why Unisys cleverly rekindled this dormant controversy and stirred the ashes to make some sparks fly and embers glow.

If I was a corporate lawyer at one of these software makers and I heard about this controversy just as my license came up for renewal, the last thing I want to do is to embroil my software package in this kind of dispute. Better pay up quietly and be done with the whole trouble.

And so we all got manipulated again (yours truly included) by the clever lawyers of Unisys.

Yuck.

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