sean@ms.uky.edu (Dan Chaney) (08/14/90)
While Compuserve holds a valid copyright for their GIF standard, and their terms for its redistribution are extremely lenient, it seems to be accompanied by a "license" that almost certainly holds no water legally. I'd be curious to see what any legal types have to say about it. What happens if I implement GIF in a program, don't give them credit, but don't copy or derive the GIF documentation? Can one prevent the use of say a computer language or standard with a mere copyright? ----- Relevant part of document follows ----- |3. Licensing. |The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the copyright property of CompuServe |Incorporated. Only CompuServe Incorporated is authorized to define, redefine, |enhance, alter, modify or change in any way the definition of the format. |CompuServe Incorporated hereby grants a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free |license for the use of the Graphics Interchange Format(sm) in computer |software; computer software utilizing GIF(sm) must acknowledge ownership of the |Graphics Interchange Format and its Service Mark by CompuServe Incorporated, in |User and Technical Documentation. Computer software utilizing GIF, which is |distributed or may be distributed without User or Technical Documentation must |display to the screen or printer a message acknowledging ownership of the |Graphics Interchange Format and the Service Mark by CompuServe Incorporated; in |this case, the acknowledgement may be displayed in an opening screen or leading |banner, or a closing screen or trailing banner. A message such as the following |may be used: | "The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of | CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of | CompuServe Incorporated." |For further information, please contact : | CompuServe Incorporated | Graphics Technology Department | 5000 Arlington Center Boulevard | Columbus, Ohio 43220 | U. S. A. -- *** Sean Casey sean@ms.uky.edu, sean@ukma.bitnet, ukma!sean
bei@halley.UUCP (Bob Izenberg) (08/15/90)
In article <sean.650597168@s.ms.uky.edu> sean@ms.uky.edu (Dan Chaney) writes: >While Compuserve holds a valid copyright for their GIF standard, and their >terms for its redistribution are extremely lenient, it seems to be >accompanied by a "license" that almost certainly holds no water legally. Let's >hope< that they're low key about licensing, lest we see a lawsuit over who owns the file extent GIF, as in PICTURE.GIF. And who owns the 8 character filename, 3 character extent format? Digital Research? Not Microsoft, I'd bet. DEC? Computer ambulance chasers, please pretend that you didn't see this! :-) -- Bob -- Bob Izenberg [ ] Tandem Computers, Inc. cs.utexas.edu!halley!bei [ ] 512 244 8837
dlawson@grebyn.com (Drew Lawson) (08/15/90)
In article <sean.650597168@s.ms.uky.edu> sean@ms.uky.edu (Dan Chaney) writes: >While Compuserve holds a valid copyright for their GIF standard, and their >terms for its redistribution are extremely lenient, it seems to be >accompanied by a "license" that almost certainly holds no water legally. I had the same impression when glancing through it. They may own the term/name GIF, and they can prevent anyone from presenting an alternate GIF standard (like DoD and ada), but they have no control over applications implementing the standard. -- +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Is life an illusion? | Drew Lawson | | Or does it just seem that way? | dlawson@grebyn.com | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+