Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!nthropy!kelvin
From: kelvin@nthropy.uucp (Kelvin Thompson)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: renderman
Message-ID: <1991Jan15.213216.14138@nthropy.uucp>
Date: 15 Jan 91 21:32:16 GMT
References: <1992@m1.cs.man.ac.uk> <2490@motcsd.csd.mot.com> <1991Jan7.143225.10246@pyro.ei.dupont.com> <240@coplex.UUCP> <2528@motcsd.csd.mot.com> <1991Jan12.033252.27767@odin.corp.sgi.com>
Reply-To: kelvin@nth.com (Kelvin Thompson)
Organization: Nth Graphics, Ltd.
Lines: 48

In article <1991Jan12.033252.27767@odin.corp.sgi.com> robert@sgi.com writes:
>
>Renderman is a scene *specification* interface.
>It is independent of and separate from the actual rendering algorithm.

Actually, Pixar wants to have it both ways.  They call it a "Scene
Description Interface," but they own the trademark on the name and
have total, arbitrary control over use of the name.

For example, the name of their *renderer* is "PhotoRealistic RenderMan."
So if you use "RenderMan" as a shorthand name for their rendering
product, then "RenderMan" refers to a renderer that happens to
comply with the "RenderMan" interface.

And they seem to prohibit anybody else to use "RenderMan" in the
same sense.  From their documentation:

   "No-one may refer to or call a product or program which did not
   originate with Pixar a 'RenderMan program' or 'RenderMan modeler'
   or 'RenderMan renderer'."

So I presume you can't call your own renderer "Hewlett-Packard RenderMan"
or "Silicon Graphics RenderMan".

>Anyone may implement any kind of renderer that complies with the
>Renderman inteface: realtime, scanline, ray tracer, or crayons.  

Maybe not.  You have to obtain written permission from Pixar to 
market such a product.  On the one hand they say that anybody
can obtain such a written license.  But they also say:

   "Anyone that creates a computer program that includes any of
   the procedure calls from RenderMan...may refer to the program
   as 'using' or 'compatible with' the RenderMan interface, IF
   THAT STATEMENT IS ACCURATE."  [my caps; some paraphrasing]

Seems to me that last phrase gives Pixar room to yank permission
if you don't have a complete implementation.

Sounds like the good folk at Pixar have been spending too much time
in the company of lawyers.  (Wasn't it just a couple of months ago
that somesuch person as A.R. Smith got caught complaining that
"software patents and copyrights are stifling innovation" at the
same time that Pixar was locking up the patent on jitter sampling?)

-- 
-- Kelvin Thompson, Nth Graphics, Ltd.
   kelvin@nth.com   nthropy!kelvin@cs.utexas.edu