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6.9 KiB
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88 lines
6.9 KiB
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<title>Signal To Noise #3 - Miscellaneous</title>
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<a name="GIF"><h1><img src="pixmap.gif">GIF Licence Problems with CompuServer
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and Unisys</h1>
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<p>CompuServe and Unisys quite recently shocked the entire world computer community with an announcement about the introduction of licences and royalties to the use of the GIF standard for storing images on computers.
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<p>This was especially worrying to maintainers and users of W3 sites, as GIF is a very common format for the storing of images.<br>
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GIF (which stands for Graphics Interchange Format) is a standard introduced by CompuServe into Public Domain in 1987 to facilitate the transfer of computer-stored images over its networks.
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<p>The whole controversy revolves around the fact that GIF depends on a compression routine called Lev Zempel Welch (LZW). This routine was developed at and patented by Unisys in 1985.
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<p>While LZW had become quite commonplace in Public Domain software throughout the world, it was not actually public property. Initially it was thought that the announcement by CompuServe of the licencing problems et cetera was an attempt by CompuServe to take control over its GIF standard. However, it transpired it was just a passing on of the demands imposed by Unisys.
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<p>The new licence agreement states there is a one-time licencing fee of $1.00 for developers and a licencing fee of $0.15 or 1.5% per registered copy of the software (whichever is greater) which utilizes Unisys' LZW techniques. Interestingly enough, this includes PKZIP and the free InfoZip version.
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<p>Unisys does not intend pursuing royalties from GIF-based software developed before 1995. Developers working on new/enhanced version of commercial on-line software require licences.
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<p>There is no licence for fees to be paid for non-commercial, freeware GIF-based applications including Internet software.
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<p>Thankfully, this means that using GIFs in W3 pages will not require any form of licence or royalites at present.
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<p>For more information, try the <a href="http://www.unisys.com/">Unisys home page</a> or e-mail lzw-info@unisys.com
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<hr align="center" width=45%><p>
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<a name="MAGAZINES">
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<center><img src="ict.gif">
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<h1>New Internet magazines keep appearing!</h1></center>
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<p>It seems that ever day I venture into the newsagents recently, another magazine offering Internet coverage appears.
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<p>Unbelieveable! <a href="http://www.futurenet.co.uk/net.html">.net</a>, <a href="http://www.gpl.net/customers/ict/ict.html">Internet and Comms Today</a>, ONLINE-WORLD and many other url-list based publications are competing for what I would have considered a specialist market.
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<p>According to the cover of issue 4 of .net, there are currently "23.5m netsurfing daily". Guess there must be a market for all these glossy magazines after all!
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<hr align="center" width=45%><p>
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<a name="ULIX">
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<center><h1>The New University Web Pages</h1></center>
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<p>The Information Technology Department staff here at the University finally seem to have realized the importance of the Web. Staff recently had to have their photographs taken for inclusion in new Web Pages being developed by ITD for the University.
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<p>In the new pages, each Academic College and Department will sport its own set of pages detailing its activities et cetera.
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<p>It is definitely good to see individuals in this institution finally acknowledging the need to establish an identity for the University on the Internet. In fairness to ITD, the new pages are not too bad, appearing pretty comprehensive indeed.
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<p>Two quite confusing points are (1) the abnormally large U.L. logo which greets visitors to the site - it looks terrible on any browser, and (2) the lack of a link to the Computer Society site.
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<p>A commendable effort nevertheless.
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<a href="http://www.ul.ie/">Take a loog yourself!</a>
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<hr align="center" width=45%><p>
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<a name="WIRETAP">
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<center><img src="cyberright.gif">
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<h1>U.S. Wiretap Bill.</h1>
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<h4>(The image used above is available, with others at the <a href="ftp://ftp.eff.org">eff.org</a> archive.)</h4></center>
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<p>New laws were passing in the United States granting the FBI to spy on telephone conversations, Bulletin Board transmissions and to read Electronic Mail.<p>
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The Digital Telephony Bill allows for wiretapping of the communications infrastructure used for providing information technology services. New technologies are to be "wiretap-ready" when first deployed and companies are to provide for staff and resources to execute FBI arranged wiretaps.
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<p>The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) initially vehemently opposed the bill, but removed themselves from the confrontation arena in exchange for concessions in the provisions of the bill. Public opinions is divided as to whether the EFF did not do enough, or indeed chose a wiser path to reducing the impact of a terrible inevitability.
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<p>Many other reaction groups formed on-line, such as the Electronic Privacy Information Centre, the American Civil Liberties Union and Voters Telecoms Watch.
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<p>To avoid potentially dangerous legal-battles with the powerful telecommunications industry, the government was forced to make last-minute changes to the bill to provide for expenses of upgrading equipment and hiring new staff.
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<p>Many privacy concerned individuals will probably be making increased use of programs such as Phil Zimmerman's Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). Zimmerman was previously jailed for writing the software, which has become an Internet standard for message authentication and encryption. Zimmerman was accused of exporting State Secrets in the form of public-key technology out of the United States.
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<p>Perhaps a worrying aspect of these draconian measures is the fact that the United States is the world leader in telecommunications technology. Technology thus exported from the U.S. will be "wiretap-ready", assisting authorities in other countries should they be considering similar measures.
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<p>It is quite remarkable that in a country where the Postal Service is protected strongly in law, that the governing authorities can read private e-mail.
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<p>The idea has been voiced that all transactions, whether public or of a private nature, should be encrypted at present - thus generating a volume of encrypted traffic so large it would become impossible for privacy-invading authorities to decypher.
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<p>For further information, try contacting:<br>
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<a href="gopher://gopher.panix.com/11/vtw/digtel">Voters Telecoms Watch</a> (<a href="mailto:vtw@vtw.org"><i>vtw@vtw.org</i></a>),
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<a href="gopher://gopher.cpsr.org/11/cpsr/privacy/communications/wiretap">Electronic Privacy Information Centre</a> (<a href="mailto:epic@epic.org"><i>epic@epic.org</i></a>),
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<a href="gopher://gopher.eff.orf/11/EFF/Policy/Digital_Telephony">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a> (<a href="mailto:eff@eff.org"><i>eff@eff.org</i></a>)
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<p>or alternatively reading the newsgroups <a href="news:comp.org.eff.talk">comp.org.eff.talk</a> and <a href="news:comp.org.cpsr.talk">comp.org.cpsr.talk</a>
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<p>
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</body>
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