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From: banzai@pixar.UUCP (Eric Herrmann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: There's No Fun At Pixar
Message-ID: <986@pixar.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Aug-87 15:48:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: pixar.986
Posted: Tue Aug 11 15:48:49 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Aug-87 06:08:02 EDT
References: <1681@cadovax.UUCP> <921@hp-sdd.HP.COM> <3694@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: banzai@pixar.UUCP (Eric Herrmann)
Distribution: world
Organization: Pixar
Lines: 58
Keywords: Elevate yourself.  I'm busy.
Summary: Oh yeah?  Well, you try harder.

[Kill bob... or eat me]

First of all, I'd like to state that I in no way carry the Official word,
and that anything I say here is my own opinion, not Pixar's.  I was not 
involved with the production of Red's Dream.  I am not a copyright lawyer
nor a diplomat.  NOTE that I'm not talking about the actual legality of the 
work, which I can't judge, so don't even think of flaming me about it.

In article <3694@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes:
>In article <921@hp-sdd.HP.COM> nick@hp-sdd.UUCP (Nick Flor) writes:
>>E) What did Pixar gain? 
>	Nothing.  Except, perhaps (by wide PD distribution), a greater
>exposure of the essence of their latest work to people who otherwise might
>not know about it (I know, I'm reaching).
Pixar certainly gained a lot of flames from amiga-netters.  If you'll look
back, you'll see quite a few nasty words from people who probably should know 
better considering how little they really know about the whole affair (and 
Pixar).  Consider:  Wouldn't the creators of RD be a lot happier to approve 
release of Leo's work if the Amiga community were more receptive?

>--------
>	After dropping off the tape, I bumped into Loren Carpenter.  I asked
>if he had any feel for the general opinion held by Pixarians concerning my
>foray.  He said that, from what he could divine, people seemed to be
>slightly amused.  I gathered from his tone that (*I'M SPECULATING HERE!*)
>the general feeling within Pixar is one of indifference.  
I'm not indifferent... and I was amused.  I think that it's a "good 
hack", but that you basically had two or three problems (other than not having 
any curved patches available): 
(1) Copyright.  The loop didn't have the words (C) 1987 PIXAR in flaming, 
raised letters anywhere. 
(2) Timing.  RD took a heck of a lot of work by some very talented people
here, and to have someone plagiarize their work EVEN BEFORE the release
of RD is a bit much.  I mean, Leo, wasn't it a bit tacky to show your
unicycle before the opening of RD at the film show?  Perhaps you
could have waited a few time units.  Example:  There apparently were
several exhibitors who were showing pictures of Luxo Jr. with and without
the copyright notice.  But that's old hat, so it makes less difference.  'Nuff 
said.
(3) Foresight.  If you had known that Pixar might be pissed, would you
still have done it?  On second thought, don't answer that.  That would be
telling.

You know, even if you can't distribute the source to your work, you could
still distribute a "how-to" telling how you constructed your models, how
you made the unicycle move, and the like.  I doubt that anyone but you can
copyright the actual models.  

Personally, I think the whole question of copyrightedness is silly.  I
do, however, suscribe to the hacker ethic of "Respect another's work".
>
>Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape	ihnp4!ptsfa -\


-- 
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             ... And a million vacations is what you had in mind ...
Just say YES!			Eric Herrmann		    ucbvax!pixar!banzai