Hi everyone,
Things are very different than six years ago. In terms of competition for Autodesk, you can now argue in different industries there is Cinema 4D, Modo, Houdini, Zbrush, 3D coat, and even Unity (now has modeling tools) that can replace functionality that was once only available in 3dsmax, Maya, and Softimage. Things are more and more about playing nice with other tools in an ecosystem than one package to rule them all. cv/ ________________________________ From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] on behalf of Ben Barker [ben.bar...@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2014 12:38 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit I'm not a lawyer either, but a few thoughts. When AD first bought Softimage there were talks of monopoly. Unfortunately for us, AD's biggest market is CAD, and they have several competitors in that arena. The government doesn't really parcel out the market in a way that favors a claim on monopoly for 3D artists. We are just a small bulb on a large tree. Secondly, and this is a more serious problem, antitrust basically doesn't exist anymore in the US like it did in the days of Ma Bell. I talked with my partner, who is a larval lawyer, about this issue quite a bit. Every antitrust decision for the past 70 years has gnawed away at plaintiff power in antitrust cases and now there is essentially nothing left. Combined with the weak case we would already have from the first part, and I think this would be a really difficult row to hoe. That money and energy would probably be better spent re-educating and resource sharing among SI artists so they can move on, or perhaps fighting the subsidy/tariff issue. I understand the anger, and it's heartbreaking to watch a superior product die in favor of Maya, but this wouldn't be a good way to retaliate IMO. On Sun, Mar 16, 2014 at 12:06 PM, skuby <sku...@gmail.com<mailto:sku...@gmail.com>> wrote: There may be a case here for an Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit against Autodesk. We would need to have a lawyer look at the details and I'm not the person to be able to do this, as I don't have the resources, connections or credibility to do so. However, if successful, it is potentially possible that Autodesk could be forced to divest their Softimage assets, aka. they could be compelled by a court to sell Softimage to a competitor at it's fair market value. Anyways, maybe someone out there in the aether can give the idea a shot, I would not know where to start outside of this initial suggestion. The Federal Trade Commission along with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division jointly regulate and enforce Antitrust Law and Anti-Competitive Monopoly practices. Anyways, this might work a little better than a petition to Autodesk or other-such cries for a change of heart, but the petition someone put out there to Autodesk might serve some use when presenting the idea to a Lawyer(s). I think a lot of people and interested parties might just support crowdfunding for legal fees. Good luck.
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