RE: Re: [License of kernel components] linux-2.x.y/Documentation/logo.GIF should be logo.PNG?

RE: Re: [License of kernel components] linux-2.x.y/Documentation/logo.GIF should be logo.PNG?

[xan2]

Gene Heskett <gene.heskett@verizon.net> wrote (23th, 2003 6:07 pm)
>>Re: [License of kernel components] linux-2.x.y/Documentation/logo.GIF
should be logo.PNG?
>
> On Tuesday 23 December 2003 10:20, xan2@ono.com wrote:
> >Hi,
> >
> >I believe that the tux logo located at
> >linux-2.6.0/Documentation/logo.gif is the image that appears on the
> >boot of the system if framebuffer is enabled, isn't it?
> >
> >In this cas, and also if it's only for documentation purpose, I
> > think that we could change the propietary (and I think patented)
> > format of this logo (gif) to anyone that were free (for example
> > like PNG format [that has GPL licensed]).
> 
> I don't think GIF was ever "proprietary", but the l-z-w compression 
> used was patented.  The patent expired earlier this year.  So gif 
> is 
> back.

Sorry. I'm outdated. ;-)
But, why not support a opensource format like PNG?
And yes, now is expired but i think that we (the kernel users) used the
gif format one year ago (I think that it's trivial to check that 2.4.x
series used gif format. So they (patent registers of LZW) might demand
the money that we did not pay to their.

Regards,
Xan.

RE: Re: [License of kernel components] linux-2.x.y/Documentation/logo.GIF should be logo.PNG?

[David Lang]

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 xan2@ono.com wrote:

> Gene Heskett <gene.heskett@verizon.net> wrote (23th, 2003 6:07 pm)
> >>Re: [License of kernel components] linux-2.x.y/Documentation/logo.GIF
> should be logo.PNG?
> >
> > On Tuesday 23 December 2003 10:20, xan2@ono.com wrote:
> > >Hi,
> > >
> > >I believe that the tux logo located at
> > >linux-2.6.0/Documentation/logo.gif is the image that appears on the
> > >boot of the system if framebuffer is enabled, isn't it?
> > >
> > >In this cas, and also if it's only for documentation purpose, I
> > > think that we could change the propietary (and I think patented)
> > > format of this logo (gif) to anyone that were free (for example
> > > like PNG format [that has GPL licensed]).
> >
> > I don't think GIF was ever "proprietary", but the l-z-w compression
> > used was patented.  The patent expired earlier this year.  So gif
> > is
> > back.
>
> Sorry. I'm outdated. ;-)
> But, why not support a opensource format like PNG?
> And yes, now is expired but i think that we (the kernel users) used the
> gif format one year ago (I think that it's trivial to check that 2.4.x
> series used gif format. So they (patent registers of LZW) might demand
> the money that we did not pay to their.

and changing it now would prevent this how?

it's probably less risk to just ask for permission for the next 4 months
before the patent expires then to put new image rendering code into the
kernel (it will probably take close to for months for an answer of no to
officially come back down anyway)

David Lang

> Regards,
> Xan.
>
>
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Re: Re: [License of kernel components] linux-2.x.y/Documentation/logo.GIF should be logo.PNG?

[xan2]

Erik Andersen <andersen@codepoet.org>
>>23th, 2003 8:38 pm
>>Re: [License of kernel components] linux-2.x.y/Documentation/logo.GIF
should be logo.PNG?
> [...]
> The U.S. LZW patent expired June 20, 2003.  The Canadian LZW
> patent expiref July 7, 2004.  The LZW patents in the United
> Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy however are still active, and
> will expire June 18, 2004.  The Japanese LZW patent will expire
> on June 20, 2004. 
> 

For this reason, because in many countries the patent is not expired and
that kernel is not _only_ for people of U.S., I think that we have to
change to PNG format rather than gif.

I vote for pass to PNG format as fast as we can.

> I vote for keeping the status quo for another 4 months....

Why not consider to make a public votation (with public point of views
of the kernel hackers about it; obviously, vote is secret) about this?

Regards,
Xan.

RE: Re: [License of kernel components] linux-2.x.y/Documentation/logo.GIF should be logo.PNG?

[xan2]

On 23th (2003, 17:16), Erik Mouw <erik@harddisk-recovery.com> wrote:
>>Re: [License of kernel components] linux-2.x.y/Documentation/logo.GIF
should be logo.PNG?
>
> On Tue, Dec 23, 2003 at 04:20:07PM +0100, xan2@ono.com wrote:
> > I believe that the tux logo located at
> > linux-2.6.0/Documentation/logo.gif is the image that appears on the
> > boot of the system if framebuffer is enabled, isn't it?
> > 
> > In this cas, and also if it's only for documentation purpose, I 
> think> that we could change the propietary (and I think patented) 
> format of
> > this logo (gif) to anyone that were free (for example like PNG 
> format> [that has GPL licensed]).
> 
> AFAIK the GIF patent (or rather: the LZW patent) expired a year 
> ago, so
> I don't think it's an issue anymore.
> 
> 
> Erik
> 

Sorry, but I didn't know this notice until now. I'm one year outdated ;-)
But anyway, do you not think that we can support the PNG format through
kernel? It was designed thinking in opensource... [I believe]

And, the patent could be expired one year ago, but I think that the
kernel hackers use this format before this year: the kernel 2.4.23 has
the logo.gif, so I think that we can check easyly that the series 2.4.x
used (and uses) this format.

Regards,
Xan.