On Sat, 3 Jul 2010 10:49:30 +0200 Francesco Poli wrote: > On Sat, 03 Jul 2010 02:49:55 +0200 Josselin Mouette wrote: > > > Le jeudi 01 juillet 2010 à 00:40 +0200, Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo a > > écrit : [...] > > > $ head -7 shaders/surface/metal.sl > > > /* metal.sl - Standard metal surface for RenderMan Interface. > > > * (c) Copyright 1988, Pixar. > > > * > > > * The RenderMan (R) Interface Procedures and RIB Protocol are: > > > * Copyright 1988, 1989, Pixar. All rights reserved. > > > * RenderMan (R) is a registered trademark of Pixar. > > > */ > > > > > > I tried to find the answers in Pixar's website, but I found none. I > > > think > > > that it's a kind of OpenGL, but I don't know if things like "All rights > > > reserved" means that they can forbid people using them, like the (already > > > several) FOSS implementations (aqsis, pixie, jrman). > > > > This looks much more worrisome to me. There is no license for use or > > redistribution here. I’m surprised the FTP masters let this slip > > through. > > I am surprised too. > Above all, I am surprised that we seem to be first ones to notice this > issue, which allegedly affects several rendering tools...
I wonder whether those "shaders" should be considered as purely functional in nature, and thus not copyrightable: I seem to recall that there's U.S. case law about a functionality exception to copyright protection, and the following was stated: | <pgregory> not much we can do about that, if we dont' ship them we're not | compliant. which seems to suggest that those "shaders" are necessary to comply to a software standard (namely, the RenderMan interface standard defined by Pixar Animation Studios). Maybe a lawyer should be consulted about this issue... -- http://www.inventati.org/frx/progs/scripts/pdebuild-hooks.html Need some pdebuild hook scripts? ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == C979 F34B 27CE 5CD8 DC12 31B5 78F4 279B DD6D FCF4
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