[Savannah-register-public] [task #5566] Submission of phpBb Rivals

[Sylvain Beucler]

Follow-up Comment #7, task #5566 (project administration):

Hi,

> Regarding the GIFs, why do you have other projects
> in the site with GIFs ?

> I fail to see how they are allowed to use them and not me.

We can't monitor our 2500+ projects, and sometimes projects switch
maintainers that do not read carefully the hosting requirements. In such
case, we contact them and ask them to remove the gifs. They're not allowed to
upload gifs anymore than you do :)

> "Unisys does not require licensing, or fees to be paid, for non-commercial,
non-profit GIF-based applications, including those for use on the on-line
services."

> This project is freeware, non-profit and non-commercial. How is it you can
say that I need to remove them ?

Free software is for "anyone anywhere". This includes commercial purposes.

If your piece of software can only be used for non-commercial purpose, for a
reason or another, then it cannot be considered free.


> It is expired in many contries ... i am NOT using the algoritum in my
program therefore it does not apply to me. Second, the patent does not apply
to me, it is expired in my country (Canada). So, I am allowed to use GIF
images in my free project.

There are two points here.

First, you personaly are allowed to use gifs, but that is not true worldwide
(this time we lack the "anywhere" part).

Second, we do not generally check for patents infridgements at Savannah,
because this would essentially match all projects, and because we don't have
the resources to perform such a hugely time consuming job (it takes days to
analyse a single patent).

However, the FSF launched a specific campain against GIFs, due to the use of
the LWZ patent as an attack (by opposition to a defense). (Admittedly this
campain is reaching its end.) So we don't accept GIFs as part of this campain
until it has expired worldwide - but that's not true for all patents
infridgements.


I hope this explained better our requirement not to use the GIF format. We
hope that, you too, will show your disagreement against the existing software
patents system, and use the PNG format instead which is free of such patents.



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