On Thu, 13 Jul 2000, Tomasz Wegrzanowski wrote: > > But you CAN modify GIFs, you just cannot use LZW compression on the > > result. > > These images are INTENDED to be COMPRESSED.
And, where is the problem? You can load them in a hex-editor and modify whatever you want. You can get something like a source-code by changing it to a pixmap. That some people have no "compiler", that makes it to a gif in the same format the original was, is problem in my eyes, as there are other ways within the same format. When a had a comercial, properitary compiler, compiled GPLd Code with it and distributed it with the source, would you also sue me, that I do illegal?! > Mere existence of nonLZW gifs doesn't make any difference to FACT that, > due to patent problems, one can't modify LZW gifs. you can modify them. You can modify an hex-edit and you can edit the image represented. The only thing you can not do is to have the same compression within the file, *only* *if* you don't have the appropitiate program for doing so. > There is legal problem. > Problem is that LZW gifs aren't free, therefore : They ARE free. > and Debian breaks GPL distributing them How does Debian break GPL, even in the non-case, that they weren't free? Hochachtungsvoll, Bernhard R. Link
