RE: [x3d-public] Copyright and objects (was Web3D Zeitgeist - most popular format, one year on.)

["Len Bullard" <cbullard@hiwaay.net>]

The deal for authors of content on open source software should 
be that the content is open.  Trust works better than technology.
If the programmers accept this deal, I don't see why the content 
authors believe they have to get a better deal.

But it keeps VRML from being adopted by the $ content that is 
paid for by employers that pay the salaries of engineers for 
3D content.  CAD.   So far, no one has invested the $ into a 
VRML project that it takes to assemble and maintain a team 
to create a very compelling VRML-based game for online or 
single-download play.  Worlds, yes.  Look at the price 
difference though: say $35 to $40 to belong to a chat site, 
vs $35 to $40 to download a single copy of a game.  Downloading 
worlds is having the band come to play for you instead of buying 
their records except they come for pennies a gig.  So 
while online worlds are where much of the best VRML content 
is, cost per gig have to increase.

Or the teams that build both have to sell both.  Gigs and games.

If someone with serious shekles to bet wants to make a bet, 
funding a team to build an open format online game with 
all of the secondary add-in sales is even money tonight. 
Maybe better.  VRML has numbers and technology. 

Lack of encryption denies some vendors access to markets that 
can buy far more copies of software and services.  While as 
computer scientists, this list knows that anything you can 
compile, I can decompile, it is nonetheless believed it 
constrains theft to only those smart enough to pull it off.

Sorta.  It gets rid of the bleachers.

When I saw the first diskcracker in the 80s that started 
with "Ho Ho Ho! A pirate's life for me..." I gave up on 
encryption.  If it's cool, they'll get it.  If it's not, 
who cares.  If they get busted for stealing the Bewitched 
movie, like, they are dorks-for-bucks anyway.

Who cares?

It comes down to the variables you believe you can trade-on 
with your partners.  I want to make money from content, but 
I will make content anyway.  Copyright is good enough.  My 
songs are in mpgs and wavs.  Anyone with a speaker wire 
can copy that, so tell me what good those are except to 
stop another musician from learning my licks and he can 
do that by listening?  Or buy my midis, but all that is 
saving is typing time.

How exactly does that help me?   Copyright is good enough.

So it comes down to how you pick the variables you trade on.

I believe VRML gets good numbers because of the variables 
selected as it emerged.  They shape it.  They are deep 
parts of the networks of selected variables now.  In the genes.

1.  PDF with 3D is a done deal.  What you use if for and 
who chooses to use it remain to be seen.  I note only that 
so far, the success of 3D has not been a function of its 
format but of the difficulty of authoring in the medium 
and imaginative use of it for one-off downloads.

PDF is still a slow loader for anything complex or deep. 
Hardware happens, but it floats all boats.

2.  VRMLs numbers such as they are are increasing because 
VRML has been adopted by research universities who understand 
the rationale of the choice to keep VRML open.  Students can 
afford that.  Students are still young enough and loose 
enough to want openness in their relationships.  What loves 
them, they love.  Mathematics departments get it.  
Archaeology departments get it.  Navy scientists get it. 
As long as the code is open, people are learning it.  As 
long as people are learning it, it is alive.  Life is 
learning; VRML's choice of variables chooses education.

Don't need no stinkin' badges.

3.  A tipping point in 3D on the Web is approaching.  The 
frequency of new entries into 3D plus the history of VRML 
in creating 3D presence on the web are coupling to the 
entry of 3D-proficient users as a larger group onto the web.

Pick up your prize.

len
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