libungif [Was: Re: [HEADSUP] ALL Maintainers, please reply.]

[Lapo Luchini]

Harold L Hunt II wrote:

> The README for both versions still lists you as the maintainer.

The evidence is on your side.
Moreover I am quite braindead at the moment (I've got a "nice -n -20
openoffice thesis.odt" process taking up most of it), and that makes
even easier for you to be right and me to remember wrong ;-)

> At this time I'd have to say that it doesn't make a lot of sense for me
> to become the maintainer, but I'd pick it up if the alternative was that
> it would be removed from the distro.

Actually, the same goes for me: ok that I'm not very interested in it,
but letting a package die seems too much of a shame to me.

BTW: but in September 2005 is there still a reason to have libUNgif?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIF#Unisys_and_LZW_patent_enforcement

> On June 20 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_20>, 2003
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003>, the United States patent on the
> LZW algorithm expired [2] <http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw>,
> which means that Unisys and Compuserve can no longer collect royalties
> for use of the GIF format in that country. Those bothered with the
> patent enforcement dubbed this day GIF Liberation Day. The equivalent
> patents in Europe and Japan expired on June 18
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_18> and June 20
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_20>, 2004
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004> respectively, with the Canada
> patent following on July 7 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_7>.

Is it *still* active somewhere?

Oven the official homepage doesn't seem to mention any place where it is:
http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw

I guess it MAY really be time to let libungif die, afterall, to be
followed by libgif, of course.
(another argument, of course, may state that it is better to use a
"crippled" library, as this eases the process of migrating to newer and
better formats, but I guess that by today if one is still using GIF he
probably got a legacy software problem and, well, knows what he really
needs)

-- 
Lapo Luchini
lapo@lapo.it (OpenPGP & X.509)
www.lapo.it (ICQ UIN: 529796)