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From: lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Christopher Lishka)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: caveat emptor
Message-ID: <257@uwslh.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Aug-87 11:03:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwslh.257
Posted: Fri Aug 21 11:03:30 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Aug-87 01:29:12 EDT
References: <2093@xanth.UUCP> <158@toylnd.UUCP>
Reply-To: lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Christopher Lishka)
Distribution: na
Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison, State Hygiene Lab
Lines: 77

In article <158@toylnd.UUCP> dca@toylnd.UUCP (David C. Albrecht) writes:
>Oh give me a break.  I sat through all these ridiculous flames against
>Pixar but I finally got my fill.  Imagine that we have a role reversal
>here.  Imagine that Leo's bread and butter is some sort of video
>production.  Imagine that Leo gives a pre-release demo to a bunch of
>people.  Imagine that one of those people from some faceless corporation
>sees some ideas he likes in the demo and copys some of the key concepts.
>Imagine that the corporation has access to faster and wider distribution
>channels and issues the knock-off before Leo gets to distribute his.
>Imagine that the corporation though their effort is not anywhere the
>same quality as Leo's still manages to fairly effectively steal Leo's
>thunder.  I ask you, if you were the victim in this imaginary exercise
>how would YOU feel.  I for one would be royally pissed off.  Certainly,
>that would be the last time that person sat in on one of my pre-release
>screenings.

	(oh, why am I doing this again ?)

	One small point.  Although it may not make anyone feel any
better, I think there would be a slight bit of difference here.  Mr.
Schwab, in creating his demo, probably did not have very many
intentions of making money off his demo (I am conjecturing here).
Maybe he wanted a little personal glory and fame, but among Amigans he
actually already has that.  So what did he have to gain from his demo
in the end?  Maybe make a few jaws drop in amazement, or make a few
eyes sparkle and guts laugh (how corny ;-), but it was not like he was
about to make loads of cash or gain a lot of fame from it (something
which he *already* had...well, at east the fame...).

	So, when a corporation goes and steals something a person
(say, anyone reading this article) because it is a good idea, what do
they have to gain?  If they don't do much except show it to friends,
they probably are not gaining all that much.  I don't think that is
bad.  If they start using it as a demo to sell their machines, they
have quite a bit to gain in terms of sales.  That would *really* annoy
me, 'cause they have stolen someone elses creation to sell their
machines (hmmm...sounds familiar...big, checkered, bouncing, beach
balls comes to mind...).  I do not know for sure if Mr. Schwab had
making any real fame off his demo, but I doubt it.

	Probably, what was wrong about what he did was he displayed it
in a booth at Siggraph, and that was taken as an advertising statement
for the Videoscape(tm) company (I belive it is Aegis (tm...)) by
someone passing by.  If he hadn't done that, there probably wouldn't
have been as much controversy.  He also did this before Red's Dream
(tm, copyright, whatever else...) was actually released, which did
step on some Pixar (tm, copyright, ...)  employees toes.  I don't
blame them for being annoyed.  I do blame them for restricting the
distribution as they much as they did, although maybe they thought it
would be used to sell Amiga products (which is NOT an unreasonable
assumption).

	Personally, the more I think about it, the more I think that
Mr.  Schwab did the right thing by following Pixar's (tm, foobar,
glarch, whatever) wishes.  Hopefully he will create another demo that
will give us an idea of what he did, and we will all be happy enough.
I wish that Pixar (tm,...) would give him rights to display the demo
*himself*, and only at user groups, and make sure that he wasn't using
it for advertising purposes (which I don't think he would do anyway),
so many more of us could see it (hey, he could go on tour ;-).  But
the Pixar (tm,...) people have done what they saw fit, and they are
now subject to whatever the Amigans see fit to b*tch about.  If they
do not want to hear criticisms, they don't have to read this
newsgroup.

	Any and all of the above are my own views, not anybody elses
(including my employers), except maybe my cockatiels (they control my
thoughts...!).  Any of the above may be reproduced only for purposes
of enjoyment, amusement, debate, or bird-cage bottom-filler.  None of
it may be reproduced for purposes of profit.

				-Chris

-- 
Chris Lishka                    /lishka@uwslh.uucp
Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene <-lishka%uwslh.uucp@rsch.wisc.edu
                                \{seismo, harvard,topaz,...}!uwvax!uwslh!lishka