After reading the messages regarding the Oxaal patents and then reading
the patents, it is obvious to me that it does cover both fisheye and
wide angle lenses. This distinction raises some very interesting
scenarios and it may explain why Stitcher and PTmac etc haven't been
legally harassed. The patents clearly cover the process of correcting
the distortion in fisheye or wide angle lenses and then interactively
viewing the corrected images.
What it doesn't cover is the use of NON DISTORTED images taken with a
STANDARD 35mm lens. If it did cover standard lenses then I would have
to get a license to use Photoshop and any other image editing program
as I can quite easily stitcher my images in these programs to create my
panorama. I can see how Oxaal could prosecute developers who create
software that can only stitch fisheye or wide angle images but programs
like Stitcher, PTmac and PTtools would seem to be safe from threats
from Oxaal.
As a content producer I'd love to see Oxaal prove that my cubics were
NOT taken with standard lenses. I can't see any possible way that they
could prove this ! They do not OWN the process of stitching ANY image
into a panorama and then interactively viewing it back. I for one do
use standard lenses when ever possible and I will not be paying $500 to
anyone for this privilege. Oxaal makes a huge assumption that every
spherical or cubic pano on the web breaches their patent. We'll I must
break it to you gently My Oxaal, YOU ARE WRONG !
This patent is almost as bad as the Amazon 1-click patent, come on
even I had developed web-sites before Amazon existed that used exactly
the same idea and process, but I don't remember being given the
opportunity to present my prior art work. And I don't remember any of
my friends who developed sites using the same systems being contacted
by the patent office either.
Like somebody else on this list mentioned the mathematics behind the
Oxaal patent is not rocket science. And the idea that someone might
want to remove the distortion from a distorted image is not a
revelation either.
This is just one more example of the out of control American system
imposing their will on others and all I can do is laugh at how
ridiculous its all become.
Anyway enough of the rant, if you guys have a few spare minutes I'm
just wrapping up a site at the moment and would like some feedback, any
comments both positive or negative are most welcome. In fact negative
comments are generally more helpful to resolving issues that may
otherwise go unnoticed.
Thanks
Matthew Rogers
matthew.rogers.name
email@hidden
On Tuesday, April 29, 2003, at 09:43 pm, Andrew Crawford wrote:
Markus Altendorff wrote:
Michael Quan wrote:
> Ford Oxaal has updated his site
>
> http://www.pictosphere.com/
>
> with information about his "Click Away" software and license.
>
> Comments...Analysis...and Legal Opinions Welcomed
All i can offer so far is "Comments"...
Same here. I am certainly not offering "legal" opinions here or
elsewhere.
- seems to bring back some legal safety into the usage of 130
years old camera technology...
Paying Ford Oxaal may not be The Right Thing to do, though. Please
refer to the recent threads on the PanoTools list (now living on Yahoo
Groups - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PanoTools/ ) titled "Knowledge
and freedom" and "some commercial software." Further discussion of
this particular issue would clearly be off-topic on this list.
Andrew Crawford
email@hidden
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