[oclug] Why is the GIMP Illegal? (was Governments requesting anticounterfeit...)

[Rod Giffin]

Brian Barber said:
> Pardon my ignorance, but why would The GIMP be consedered illegal?  Is
> it because of Unisys' gif patent issue?

As far as I know, The GIMP isn't illegal anywhere, even in respect of the
gif LZW patent issue.  You might have to pay UniSys a license fee under
some circumstances, but that's certainly not the same as being "illegal".

Also, with respect to this new challenge, the way Photoshop prevents you
from using an image which is too close to a $20.00 bill is by a fairly
simple pattern recognition technology.   Something like it can be
incorporated fairly easily into The GIMP because of it's plugable
interface.

I'm not saying this is a good way to stop serious counterfeiters - it's
not.  But when it's trivial to get a printer capable of printing something
that looke close enough to paper currency that a lot of people wouldn't
think twice about taking, you have a problem that needs to be addressed.

Rod.

> From: Dana Webber <dana at dunrobin.dyn.dhs.org>
> The version of the GIMP that can create a gif is ( or was )  illegal in
> most  contries. However you could download it from finland, uninstal the
> legal  version and install the full version and everything looked the
> same.
>
>
> On Friday 09 January 2004 21:42, Michael Walma wrote:
>> Would this make the GIMP illegal in the EU?  I note that the date for
>> submitting comments has already passed.