lcrocker@nupedia.com wrote:
Again, I'm not averse to excluding GIFs from Wikipedia for many reasons, but fear of a legitimate patent infringement claim is not one of them.0
I would agree with this. For one thing, Unisys would have to be smoking crack to sue Wikipedia, since they'd look like ogres. They'd be better off suing Yahoo or Microsoft or any of a number of other rich and unsympathetic folks.
On the other hand, there are lots of good reasons to not have GIFs around here, even if we aren't the least bit afraid of a serious lawsuit. We have an image to uphold in the free software community, at least, and we want to make crystal clear our commitment to the principles of that community.
--Jimbo