Sounds like he's within his rights to protect his property, and you're not going to beat a corporation like Disney by being Mr. Nice-guy. I think it's important to protect the small developer who's taken it to the point where they have a tool that people will pay for. Thiago, Helge, Holger, Eric Mootz, just to name a few, do us a great service and it's not cool for a company to step on them because they don't have a legal department. Would Disney try that with some software tool that Apple invented? No, because they'd get sued into the next century and they know it.
Good for him, I hope it works out. Eric On Apr 29, 2012 10:16 AM, "Dan Yargici" <danyarg...@gmail.com> wrote: > Wow, he comes across as such an arsehole! I didn't realize he > sued Disney for technology relating to Tangled also! > > > http://patentexaminer.org/2011/10/disney-sued-for-infringing-virtual-hair-raising-patent/ > > "The Westlake Village resident claims Disney “reverse engineered” his > technology, tweaking it along the way to help bring to life animated > characters in Toy Story 3, Up, Finding Nemo and some of its other > blockbuster films of late. He declined to speculate on whether the company > copied his technology. Given Disney’s size and scope, Alter says, the > infringement “will create a multi million dollar hole in [his] income and > will dilute his brand.” > > “It’s a giant corporation that’s made a lot of money with my ideas and is > now going to put me out of business, essentially,” Alter told The Patent > Examiner during a phone call." > > DAN > > On Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 12:20 PM, Thomas Helzle <thomashel...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > Poor guy that Joe Alter person. > > I still have the dongle for the initial "Shave and a Haircut" for > Lightwave on the shelf. > > It never really worked properly and when Softimage bought into it, he > showed all the Lightwave users who did the endless beta-testing of his > broken code the highly raised middle finger, bragged about his > 6-digit-sale, slapped some people verbally in the face as a good bye and > was never seen again... > > Since then I keep hearing weird stories about his patent and how he > deals with it. > > > > Tragic in a way if you are pinned down by a patent like that instead of > being able to go on with your life and come up with new cool ideas... > > > > Cheers, > > > > Tom > > > > > > On 28 April 2012 19:15, Eric Turman <i.anima...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> > >> One could only hope that it will steer potential yeti customers to ICE > hair solutions ;) > >> > >> > >> On Sat, Apr 28, 2012 at 12:00 PM, Todd Akita <tak...@earthlink.net> > wrote: > >>> > >>> Wow I'm sure that's gonna steer all those potential Yeti customers > right to Joe Alter. > >>> > >>> -T > >>> > >>> On Apr 28, 2012, at 12:45 PM, Luc-Eric Rousseau <luceri...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >>> > >>> > Industry gossip: Joe Alter has been on a patent warpath lately, and > >>> > Yeti announced they can't be sold in the US > >>> > http://peregrinelabs.com/2012/04/to-our-us-customers/ > >>> > > >>> > On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 7:17 AM, Raffaele Fragapane > >>> > <raffsxsil...@googlemail.com> wrote: > >>> >> It's not really, but it isn't a standard grooming toolset either. > It's a > >>> >> hybrid approach of scope targeted graph managers that many > companies in the > >>> >> high end of the business have had excellent luck with, and it does > hair and > >>> >> grooming specific things (shaders, rendering partitioning and > injection etc) > >>> >> that something as general purposed as ice can't do. > >>> >> > >>> >> Again, it doesn't go against ICE nor shave. > >>> >> It's a promising product to keep an eye on for the mid and small > sized > >>> >> studios > >>> >> > >>> >> On Apr 12, 2012 6:50 PM, "Andi Farhall" < > andi.farh...@primefocusworld.com> > >>> >> wrote: > >>> >>> > >>> >>> looks clunky to me, but then everything looks clunky compared to > soft > >>> >>> imho. > >>> >>> > >>> >>> Andi > >>> >>> > >>> >>> -----Original Message----- > >>> >>> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com > >>> >>> [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of > Stefan > >>> >>> Kubicek > >>> >>> Sent: 11 April 2012 22:29 > >>> >>> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com > >>> >>> Subject: Nodes galore II (not ICE) > >>> >>> > >>> >>> Just stumbled over this one, it looks like mbFeathers and Kristinka > >>> >>> combined: http://peregrinelabs.com/yeti/ > >>> >>> > >>> >>> Not much to see in terms of videos or screenshots, but the price > hints > >>> >>> at quite a bit of self confidence there. > >>> >>> > >>> >>> Stefan > >>> >>> > >>> >> > >>> > >> > >> > >> > >> -- > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> -=T=- > > > > >