Glen writes:
> Any comments? Gavin?
 
I don't know what the details of the licensing restrictions on LZW/GIF
are these days, but I wouldn't be too worried about it.  The GIF code
must be completely encapsulated within Sun's code and there is no
notification by Sun about it, so if anyone is infringing the patent it
is Sun not you.  Of course UNISYS could probably get an injunction
against you to stop the use of their patent, at which point your only
recourse would be to sue Sun, which I would think you would have every
right to do if this ever happened.
 
As far as I know, if there is an issue here it is one that Sun will have
to work out, and I don't think it is going to have any effect on anyone
downstream, so I personally don't plan to ever think about it again.
 
Besides, if you write a Java program, your code probably won't ever
include any LZW code.  Your code will get downloaded to a web browser
where the LZW code is installed either as part of the browser or the
local Java runtime.  So it's the owner of the system the browser runs on
who has to worry :-)
 
Any comments? Eugene?
 
G.