This program is © Copyright 1999, Jeffrey T. Darlington. All rights reserved. It is to be distributed as "freeware;" you may copy it and distribute it as often as you wish, but you may not collect financial compensation for it. If you wish to distribute it, please only do so as the complete distribution archive (complete with documentation) and with this copyright file. If, by some strange whim of fate, you would like to package this application along with something else, such as on a CD of shareware, etc., please contact me first and let me know. Also, please give credit where credit is due, and if it is placed online, provide a notice and/or a link to my web page, and acknowledge the contribution of Adam Doppelt for his GIFEncoder classes. (A link to him is your prerogative.)
This program is provided AS IS without any form of warranty. By using this product, you agree that the creator will not be held liable for any damages that may inadvertently occur through the use of this program. It is also provided without technical support (however, I will happily answer any questions or suggestions when I can; do not interpret this as an obligation).
Concerning GIF and the Unisys Patent Argument
Mandelbrot Madness JAVA! supports saving images to the CompuServe
GIF image format. It uses Adam Doppelt's GIFEncoder classes
to do so. The Unisys Corporation has recently begun a campaign demanding royalties for
the use of the GIF format, claiming to hold the patent for the compression algorithm
used. (This is unfortunate, since the GIF format is perhaps the most widely used image
format on the Web.) Neither I (Jeff Darlington) nor Adam Doppelt have requested nor
received permission from Unisys for using GIF in either of our Java classes. However,
according to an official
statement from Unisys, no royalty payments are necessary for non-commercial,
non-profit applications:
Unisys does not require licensing, or fees to be paid, for non-commercial, non-profit GIF-based applications, including those for use on the on-line services.Concerning developers of software for the Internet network, the same principle applies. Unisys will not pursue previous inadvertent infringement by developers producing versions of software products for the Internet prior to 1995. The company does not require licensing, or fees to be paid for non-commercial, non-profit offerings on the Internet, including "Freeware".
Since MMJ! is considered "freeware" (i.e., I ask for no financial compensation for its use by you) and is thus both non-commercial and non-profit, I feel this program is well within the boundaries of this statement. If you are not comfortable with this interpretation, please discontinue using MMJ!
I have considered replacing GIF support with PNG support in the future, since PNG is not proprietary and does not have all the legal hang-ups of GIF. However, Java does not support PNG natively, and most third-party PNG implementations are bulky or not easily available for free software such as MMJ! Until such time, MMJ! will continue under the same believe as stated above.
For more information, visit the League for Programming Freedom (LPF) GIF Controversy Page
Jeffrey T. Darlington, program author
E-Mail: jeff.darlington@pobox.com
Web: http://www.nr.infi.net/~jdarling/
Author of GIFEncoder classes (not connected with this project, so don't ask him about it):
Adam Doppelt: http://shell.nanospace.com/~amd/java/GIFEncoder/
Please visit Apocalypse Pete's Web Page of Mirth and Mayhem!, conveniently located at
http://www.nr.inif.net/~jdarling/apocalyp.html
While you're at it, make sure to visit General Protection Fault at
http://www.gpf-comics.com/
Thank you, and God bless us, everyone.
Last revised March 18, 1999
© Copyright 1999, Jeffrey T. Darlington. All rights reserved.