This file is just a placeholder; all the documentation is now in HTML in the html directory. To view the documentation point your favorite WWW viewer at html/index.html;
e.g.
firefox html/index.html
If you don't have an HTML viewer then you can read the HTML source or fetch a PostScript version of this documentation from the directory
http://download.osgeo.org/libtiff/
If you can't hack either of these options then basically what you want to do is:
% ./configure
% make
% su
# make install
More information, email contacts, and mailing list information can be found online at http://www.simplesystems.org/libtiff/
Silicon Graphics has seen fit to allow us to give this work away. It is free. There is no support or guarantee of any sort as to its operations, correctness, or whatever. If you do anything useful with all or parts of it you need to honor the copyright notices. I would also be interested in knowing about it and, hopefully, be acknowledged.
The legal way of saying that is:
Copyright (c) 1988-1997 Sam Leffler Copyright (c) 1991-1997 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that (i) the above copyright notices and this permission notice appear in all copies of the software and related documentation, and (ii) the names of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics may not be used in any advertising or publicity relating to the software without the specific, prior written permission of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
IN NO EVENT SHALL SAM LEFFLER OR SILICON GRAPHICS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.