Centarsia's author threatened with lawsuit -> another one bites thedust. . .

[Susan Bugher]

http://www.abundantmedia.com/centarsia/

<q>
We regret to inform you that we are no longer supporting or distributing
Centarsia, due to the threat of legal action by Robert Silvers, the
holder of a patent related to the technology that we used in Centarsia.
We do not necessarily believe that the patent is applicable in this case
but we have neither the time, interest, or money to pursue a legal
"hashing out", so we are complying with the cease and desist request.
</q>

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware
Search alt.comp.freeware (or read it online):
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=+group:alt.comp.freeware
Pricelessware & ACF: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)

 

[Thorsten Duhn]

Hello,

due to the threat of legal action by Robert Silvers, the holder
of a patent related to the technology that we used in Centarsia.

what I'm asking myself, this program (I never used it) is for
creating photo-mosaics from multiple pictures. This is something
some other tools also offer. Will this patent offend all tools
or is this specific to some technique used by Centarsia?

Another sad example for the weirdness of software patents?

Regards,
Thorsten

 

[Dave Turner]

Can you give us a brief description of what your program is doing exactly
that might be infringing the patent?

 

[Susan Bugher]

Can you give us a brief description of what your program is doing exactly
that might be infringing the patent?

FYI the author has not posted in this thread. . .

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware
Search alt.comp.freeware (or read it online):
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=+group:alt.comp.freeware
Pricelessware & ACF: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)

 

[Susan Bugher]

what I'm asking myself, this program (I never used it) is for
creating photo-mosaics from multiple pictures. This is something
some other tools also offer. Will this patent offend all tools
or is this specific to some technique used by Centarsia?

dunno. . .

Another sad example for the weirdness of software patents?

Perhaps another sad example of using the patent law as a bludgeon => the
merit of the suit is immaterial. The "deep pockets" win because the
little guy can't afford to fight. . .

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware
Search alt.comp.freeware (or read it online):
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=+group:alt.comp.freeware
Pricelessware & ACF: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)

 

[Dave Turner]

do you know then?

 

[Will McGugan]

http://www.abundantmedia.com/centarsia/

<q>
We regret to inform you that we are no longer supporting or distributing
Centarsia, due to the threat of legal action by Robert Silvers, the
holder of a patent related to the technology that we used in Centarsia.
We do not necessarily believe that the patent is applicable in this case
but we have neither the time, interest, or money to pursue a legal
"hashing out", so we are complying with the cease and desist request.
</q>

Patent laws need to be addressed. Creating those photo mosiac images is
a cool idea, but frankly any good graphics programmer could come up with
a way of doing it. Its getting to the point that it is virtual
impossible to write any code that doesnt use some patented technology.
You just have to hope that your work doesnt come under the radar of some
company that can afford lawyers. It is a threat to freeware, so kudos
for bringing it up.

This is a good site for the campaign against software patents in the EU.

http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/


Will McGugan

 

[Susan Bugher]

do you know then?

Nope.

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware
Search alt.comp.freeware (or read it online):
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=+group:alt.comp.freeware
Pricelessware & ACF: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)

 

[Al Klein]

http://www.abundantmedia.com/centarsia/

LFW, Susan? Or is it on the Pricelessware list?

 

[Susan Bugher]

LFW, Susan? Or is it on the Pricelessware list?

dunno if there's a LFW version for Centarsia - haven't looked for one
(Centarsia has never been Pricelessware).

ATM I'm checking links on the ACF pages - removing links that have gone
sour and updating redirected links. When, as and if people post new
links to replace those that get removed I'll add them to the web pages.

All help gratefully received. . .

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware
Search alt.comp.freeware (or read it online):
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=+group:alt.comp.freeware
Pricelessware & ACF: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)

 

[Al Klein]

All help gratefully received. . .

I haven't found a download site yet (why does everyone refer back to
the original URL?), but I found this in my looking:
<http://andreaplanet.ngi.it/andreamosaic/AndreaMosaicSetupWithSample.exe>

I haven't opened it yet, but it looks like freeware.