From: ryot AT bigfoot DOT com (George Ryot) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: JPEG or GIF lib Message-ID: <37a80bab.1031834@news.clara.net> References: X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.452 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Mon, 02 Aug 1999 21:52:37 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 195.8.92.244 X-Complaints-To: abuse AT clara DOT net X-Trace: nnrp3.clara.net 933630757 195.8.92.244 (Mon, 02 Aug 1999 22:52:37 BST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 02 Aug 1999 22:52:37 BST Lines: 23 To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Andris Pavenis wrote: > There is no more GIF support in latest versions of libgd.a due to patent > problems. You should search for gd1.3.tgz or gd1.4.tgz to find versions > that supports GIFs. WARNING. versions 1.2 and 1.5 contains LZW compression > that has patent problems, so don't use them. My understanding is that a licence is only required if you wish to incorporate the LZW algorithm into a product that you wish to sell. If you write code for your own use then it's ok to use LZW and the resulting GIFs can be freely distributed or sold. gdlib 1.5 which I am using can be compiled without LZW compresion and so could be used in a product without the need for a licence, although distribution of the gdlib source code which *does* contain LZW is possibly suspect. Please correct me if I am wrong on any of this, I thought I understood it but maybe not ;) http://www.boutell.com/gd/ lists gd 1.5 as no longer available, it is replaced by gd 1.6.3 which now supports PNG format instead of GIF so things may not be as straighfoward as I thought. -- george