There were more useful alternatives to the GIF at the time, though, and the GIF didn't have such a lock on related patents. GIF was one patented format; h.264

There were more useful alternatives to the GIF at the time, though, and the GIF didn't have such a lock on related patents. GIF was one patented format; h.264 is a fuck-ton of patents related to the development and implementation of codec formats.