BS> How is CompuServe going to charge for GIF usage?  Besides being a dumb 
idea
Actually, it's Unisys that's charging.  And they could take people to
court if they don't pay.
BS> their part (proprietary, licensed schemes NEVER work), I thought GIF was 
an
BS> open format.  With the format being publicly available, how could they
BS> charge?  Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Compu$erve did create GIF to be an open format.  What they didn't tell
people though, was that GIF used LZW data compression and that the LZW
is patented (owned) by Unisys.
Compu$erve claims they didn't know that and Unisys claims they didn't
know that LZW was being used....  (And if you belive that, I've got some
beach front property in Kansas that I'll sell you, cheap.  And this
great tower in Paris France.....)
Ever since the December announcement, a lot of people are moving very
quickly away from GIF.  The new PNG (ping) is supposed to replace GIF as
'the' open standard, but we'll have to wait and see.
I'm not sure of the exact current details.  It's changed a couple of
times since it was originally done in December.  I think they've toned
it down from 'everybody & past usage' to just 'developers only & a
percentage of current sales'.
One of the things that annoyed most people is that back in Dec.,
Compu$erve didn't even bother to tell everybody about it until a
deadline had already pasted.
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