To add from what I read on the another list on which Joe responded
about the Yeti situation, he offered to work something out with them
but they straight up declined and now we have no access to it in North
America (is that still the case?).
One thing I dislike about Joe though is that he isn't continuing
development on Shave or innovating in that space (that I know of).
Basically holding a patent and enforcing it but not innovating with it.
It's fair enough if he wants to do it, but that doesn't make me like
him. I've never met him so I dislike him in a mild sense.
Eric Thivierge
===============
Character TD / RnD
Hybride Technologies
On August-26-13 11:33:49 AM, Eric Deren wrote:
Nah, Joe Alter already holds this...
I still have yet to figure out why folks unabashedly slam Joe. Yes,
there are patent trolls and yes, there are serious problems with our
patent system, but after evaluating the entire situation after the
Yeti deal collapsed (which was unfortunate), it seems to me that, in
general, Joe is the "little guy" that the best parts of our decrepit
patent system support.
Before the Yeti thing, his patent basically kept several large studios
from outright stealing his work and giving him no compensation for
it. Isn't that the ideal situation for patents? Protecting the
little guy from the big conglomerate corporations?
I don't want to turn this into a political discussion but this "evil
Joe Alter" thread came up on a neighboring VFX list that Joe was
actually on, and when he calmly presented his case it actually made a
lot of sense. Yeti is an unfortunate causality to this situation, but
this doesn't mean that Joe is a patent troll... I mean, he did the
actual work and makes money from competing products based on that
work. I'm all for open-source stuff and I think if someone wants to
go down that route, more power to them. All of my released work has
been released as such. But that doesn't mean that if someone wants
the protection of the law for their creation they should be denied
that. Methinks if his detractors actually held patents they would
have a different opinion of him.
My 0.02.
-Eric
-----Original Message----- From: Eugen Sares
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 10:23 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: Friday Flashback #133
Nah, Joe Alter already holds this...
