GIFs, Unisys, and Greed

[prestam at okstate.edu]

The Webmaster's Domain column by Lincoln Stein in the December 99 issue of
WEBTechniques summarizes the position that Unisys has taken regarding GIFs.
His column references a number of sites, including

League for Programming Freedom
http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/Gif/Gif.html

Slashdot article (Aug 08, 99 article)
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/08/31/0143246.shtml

I have two questions for web4libbers:

1)  Has anyone been contacted by Unisys, questioning whether or not GIFs
used on your Website are kosher?

2)  Is anyone out there (even remotely) considering coughing up a $5,000
license fee to Unisys just to be on the safe side?

Thanks.

Anne Prestamo, Coordinator
Digital Library Services
Edmon Low Library
Oklahoma State University
prestam at okstate.edu