Ralf Muschall wrote:

> Jon A. Cruz wrote:
>
> > But Unisys has long since changed their tune and have demanded royalties from
> > even freeware programs. (They took the freeware exemption out of their license
> > well over a year ago)
> > Also, much of the free world is amazed by the silly concept of software patents,
> > and thus their authors have no problem with the issues. Here in the States,
> > though, the lawyers run free and are to be watched.
>
> This would mean that essentially the whole WWW is illegal now - I have
> yet to
> come across a website without images, and AFAIK browsers do not support
> PNG
> yet. (And until MNG is defined, animations are impossible, too.)
>
> How active have they been in raiding websites ?
>

No, not really. The patent is in the algorithm mainly just for creating GIF images.
Nothing applies to using the data (created images). Although, Unisys' legal/marketing
departments might have liked you to believe otherwise.

Oh, and MSIE has supported PNG since version 4.0, and Netscape since 4.x also (both
for well over a year now, I seem to recall). Opera has for even longer.

BTW, you really should upgrade your browser ;-)

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