Doug Eichenberg wrote:

> Anyhow, I was using Mike Houghs patched version of MegaPOV
> (the one he used for his flower image) and I got a message telling
> me that GIF images will no longer be supported because of
> legal issues.  This hasn't happened with my regular version of
> MegaPOV 0.5.  Does anyone know anything about this?  Is
> this for sure about no GIF support?

MegaPOV 0.5a removed gif support & there were several threads discussing
this in p.g, p.o-t & p.u.p
Nathan explained the reasons at the time but basically (as I understand
it) he (as a hobbyist) cannot afford the $5K the patent owners of the
LWZ compression algorithm are demanding for its use whether or not the
en/decoding algorithm is part of free software or not.  The fee also
seems to apply to people having gifs on their web sites.
GIF is an old format that (in many peoples opinions) has been
superseeded by png
Most people don't like software patents and cripplingly expensive
software & so a GIF boycot has been started - see
http://burnallgifs.org/

--
Bye
Pabs
goto http://www.s11.org

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