Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!dog.ee.lbl.gov!george.lbl.gov!antony From: antony@george.lbl.gov (Antony A. Courtney) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Marching Cubes Message-ID: <6849@dog.ee.lbl.gov> Date: 9 Sep 90 19:47:42 GMT References: <6794@dog.ee.lbl.gov> Sender: usenet@dog.ee.lbl.gov Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories Lines: 36 X-Local-Date: Sun, 9 Sep 90 12:47:42 PDT In article montanaro@crdgw1.ge.com (Skip Montanaro) writes: >GE holds a patent on Marching Cubes. Lots of people have implemented it for >their own use. There's nothing wrong with that. To make money from it, >however (for instance, use MC in a volume visualization system you sell), >you must license it from GE. That's great, and there is nothing wrong with GE wanting to reap the benefits of their work. They made the investment in the R&D, they should get the cash returns off it. MY gripe was with the tone of the original posting by the guy from GE Medical Systems division. His posting basically stated that "ours is better, and the REAL thing, everything else is fake and is neither as good nor as fast." To make claims like this without any real support does not shed a favorable light on GE. Furthermore, the original inquiry about marching cubes came from an individual at an academic institution who clearly had no intention of purchasing the software, and the followup articles were from places like NCSA who are quite clearly NOT using Marching Cubes in a for-profit product development effort. I still assert that it would have been to GE's advantage to make all this software freely and easily available to academics from the start, but that is neither here nor there. I'll leave market theory to the financial analysts. Clearly *THEY* know how to make a computer company succesfull... > >-- >Skip (montanaro@crdgw1.ge.com) ~antony -- ******************************************************************************* Antony A. Courtney antony@george.lbl.gov Advanced Development Group ucbvax!csam.lbl.gov!antony Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (415) 486-6692