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

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GIF misinformation (Re: Burn all Gif, Unisys ComeBack !!!)

Author:	Dave W. Smith
Posted:	9/17/1999; 12:28:05 PM
Topic:	Burn all Gif, Unisys ComeBack !!!
Msg #:	11241 (In response to 11206)
Prev/Next:	11240 / 11242

PNG may well be a superior format, but let us please not play loose with facts in the name of that cause.

Unisys holds a patent on the LZW encoding, which is commonly, but not necessarily used in GIFs. The GIF specification also supports run-length encoding (RLE), which yields larger files than does LZW. A number of packages side-step the Unisys patent by using RLE.

This was recently hashed over in slashdot, complete with copies of letters from Unisys lawyers that clarify their position.

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