Stephen J Turnbull <turnbull(a)sk.tsukuba.ac.jp&gt; writes in xemacs-beta(a)xemacs.org: Practically, this is correct. Legally, it is probably not. Ignorance of the patent is not a defense, I believe[1]. According to the relevant authorities, they own the patent on that pattern of thought. If someone wishes to take this on in a more suitable forum (eg. like an anonyomous post to Usenet through a cypherpunks remailer) the patch to XEmacs for GIF support will be available, but it won't make using programs using the patent any less in violation of the patent if the user is unlicensed. Not that there's anything I could do about it, regardless. Footnotes: [1] IANAL, yadda, yadda, yadda.