IrfanView GIF-TIF

  • Thread starter Thread starter Arnie
  • Start date Start date
A

Arnie

@Quote(Irfanview, which last I checked was not
licensed to include .gif and .tif compression)
From the PW-Promotes-©-infringement topic.

Is this true, that saving GIF's and TIFF's with IrfanView is illegal?
Most likely other freeware programs (including Gimp?) would then be illegal
as well?
Who can provide me with some useful information on this.
Tia.
 
Arnie said:
@Quote(Irfanview, which last I checked was not
licensed to include .gif and .tif compression)
From the PW-Promotes--infringement topic.

Is this true, that saving GIF's and TIFF's with IrfanView is illegal?
Most likely other freeware programs (including Gimp?) would then be
illegal as well?
Who can provide me with some useful information on this.
Click to expand...

The U.S. Gif patent expired June 20, 2003. From the Unisys site-"the
counterpart Canadian patent expires July 7, 2004, the counterpart patents in
the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy expire June 18, 2004, and the
Japanese counterpart patents expire June 20, 2004."

I believe the TIFF format is a public domain specification.
 
| Is this true, that saving GIF's and TIFF's with IrfanView is illegal?
| Most likely other freeware programs (including Gimp?) would then be illegal
| as well?

What constitutes an act of patent infringement varies from country to
country. Gimp only has GIF and LZW-TIFF capability as a plug-in, and
warns that it should only be used in those areas where the Unisys
Patent does not apply, so they are probably OK.

There are a lot of other freeware programs out there which
specifically do not include GIF at all, because it would be pirating
Unisys's technology (the PNG format, which is much better than GIF,
came into being in order to give an alternative to GIF for freeware
programs).

And then there are other freeware writers who seem to think that they
will not be caught, or that they are somehow excepted - I guess we
will see in the months after the patent finally expires in all areas
next summer.

| Who can provide me with some useful information on this.

You can go to the patent-holder's site at
http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw/





- return address is altered slightly to reduce spam.
 
On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 15:41:47 -0700, "Ben Cooper"
| I believe the TIFF format is a public domain specification.

The base format isn't restricted. However one of the most common
compressed TIF sub-formats uses the LZW compression which is also
under the patent. Same for some compressed PDF and other formats.





- return address is altered slightly to reduce spam.
 
Dan said:
On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 15:41:47 -0700, "Ben Cooper"
| I believe the TIFF format is a public domain specification.

The base format isn't restricted. However one of the most common
compressed TIF sub-formats uses the LZW compression which is also
under the patent. Same for some compressed PDF and other
Click to expand...
formats.

Thanks for the clarification.
Would you happen to know of a site that has a cohesive,
authoritative explanation of how these image formats are
related?
 
Ben said:
Dan wrote:


Thanks for the clarification.
Would you happen to know of a site that has a cohesive,
authoritative explanation of how these image formats are
related?
Click to expand...

libpng.org has a lot on this stuff.
 
On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 20:50:20 -0700, "Ben Cooper"
| Would you happen to know of a site that has a cohesive,
| authoritative explanation of how these image formats are
| related?

Slashdot has run some articles - e.g.,
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/08/29/0722236.shtml

Though I wouldn't call them cohesive or authoritative. The Unisys site
has their official links and position.

The couple of good articles I had bookmarked in the past seem to be
dead links now.





- return address is altered slightly to reduce spam.
 
Dan said:
Gimp only has GIF and LZW-TIFF capability as a plug-in, and warns that
it should only be used in those areas where the Unisys Patent does not
apply, so they are probably OK.
Click to expand...

....but not freeware, according to Corliss' latest definition.
 
| Is this true, that saving GIF's and TIFF's with IrfanView is illegal?
| Most likely other freeware programs (including Gimp?) would then be
| illegal as well?

What constitutes an act of patent infringement varies from country to
country. Gimp only has GIF and LZW-TIFF capability as a plug-in, and
warns that it should only be used in those areas where the Unisys
Patent does not apply, so they are probably OK.
Click to expand...

Doesn't it also say that if you have bought another software that can
save to .gif, that means that you have paid for the GIF license and you
can use the Gimp GIF plug-in, wherever you are?
I read this somewhere and I think it was on the website of the Gimp.
 
| Doesn't it also say that if you have bought another software that can
| save to .gif, that means that you have paid for the GIF license and you
| can use the Gimp GIF plug-in, wherever you are?

No. IANAL, but I did talk to the Unisys people a few years ago about
this. The license applies to the product and not to a user. Users are
either using pirated software, or they are using software for which
the author obtained a license. The license is not transferable from
one licensed product to another unlicensed product.

That is like saying that just because someone bought a license for
Windows 98 that they can pirate any other Microsoft product which
contains the same technology. I doubt either Microsoft or Unisys would
accept that.





- return address is altered slightly to reduce spam.
 
Arnie said:
@Quote(Irfanview, which last I checked was not
licensed to include .gif and .tif compression)
From the PW-Promotes-©-infringement topic.

Is this true, that saving GIF's and TIFF's with IrfanView is illegal?
Most likely other freeware programs (including Gimp?) would then be
illegal as well?
Who can provide me with some useful information on this.
Tia.
Click to expand...

From this page (Free Software Foundation)
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/gif.html :

<quote>
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".
</quote>

<quote>
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.
</quote>
 
Back
Top