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Why did you remove the GIF functions from Fastgraph 5.0?

April 26, 2017fastgraph functions GIF remove

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Why did you remove the GIF functions from Fastgraph 5.0?

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Both Unisys and and IBM are claiming patents on the LZW technology, which is the cornerstone of GIF file compression. Now Unisys is requiring a royalty on any program that compresses or decompresses GIF files. If you write a program that uses Fastgraph to read or write a GIF file, you could owe royalties to Unisys. We are opposed to paying royalties to Unisys. We are opposed to software patents in general. We recommend you avoid using the GIF functions. However, we recognize that some customers may still need to use GIF files, even if it means paying royalties to Unisys. For these customers we have created a freeware library offering the GIF functionality from Fastgraph 4.x and Fastgraph/Image 2.x (this library works with the Fastgraph 5.0 for DOS product family). Click here to download the Fastgraph 5.0 freeware GIF library.