GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 364767
Documentation says that GIF format has license issues.
Last modified: 2006-10-28 10:37:47 UTC
Documentation Section: Introduction Another important image format is PNG, this format is very common on Unix platforms and is considered a replacement of the GIF format which has license issues. Correct version: Another important image format is PNG, this format is very common on Unix platforms and is considered a replacement of the GIF format. Other information: GIF patents expired worldwide. For more information read: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html#venuenote
This is fixed in http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=361967#c2. - Mike