Re: Hello???

[P3D john bercovitz <bercov@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jonathan R. Gross writes:
 
> ...I strongly disagree...
 
Jonathan, I understand where you're coming from.  You're 
interested in copyright law.  In fact you have a special interest 
as a software designer.  Copyright _is_ related to 3D for the 
reasons you state, primarily that what we view or write in 3D is 
copyrightable and without copyright, people who work in these 
fields would starve.  However, we have to be careful we don't get 
into a sort of James Burke theory of connections.  Let me 
illustrate with a couple of short examples.
 
I have a special interest in the history and in the technology of 
stereoscopy.  The lenses in a red button viewer are achromatic.  
If there were no achromatic lenses, there would be no small, 
convenient cameras and viewer lenses.  Achromatic lenses use 
special glasses that were developed by Ernst Abbe (with an assist 
from Schott) who made a massive assault on the development of new 
glasses by trying all sorts of unusual additives and keeping very 
careful notes.  Barium crown glass made possible designs such as 
the Tessar.  But where did these elements he introduced into glass 
come from?  A proper understanding of the cosmological origins of 
these elements is absolutely _critical_ to understanding where 
today's stereo lenses came from.  (And I happen to know there are 
a number of people on this list who can speak eloquently on this 
subject.)  The way cosmological theories come and go, I wonder if 
we throw away the old theories too easily.  Can Fred Hoyle's 
theory of cosmology be saved?...
 
Or: I think that the irises in our lenses are too restrictive.  
Sometimes we need a smaller aperture than the lens can provide.  
Sometimes it would be nice to be able to have two apertures in the 
same lens so we can do closeup stereophotography.  It's a pain to 
change irises.  Wouldn't we all be much better off if we went back 
to the Waterhouse stop?  John Waterhouse developed the stop when 
new and faster emulsions were developed which required less light 
or more precise, short-duration, shutter timing.  How did 
Waterhouse get into this business in the first place?...
 
Points to remember:
 
The only thing we all agreed on when we joined this list was that 
we wanted to talk about 3D.  This is the difference between an AOL 
chat room and a focus list such as this one.  (Don't get me wrong 
- it's fine to digress for a message or two, or to throw in a 
little humor.  But when an off-topic thread goes on and on, you're 
not sticking to the agreed-upon terms of the list.)
 
The larger the list, due to sheer quantity of messages, the 
tighter your focus must be if consideration of other members of 
the list is an issue for you.
 
John B
 
PS: I posted the address of the copyright mailing list last 
iteration of this particular digression.  I hope a number of you 
found satisfaction there.
 
PPS: The above views are IMHO only.  For current official policy, 
ask the new list-guidance moderator.  After quite a number of 
years of explaining my vision of the list to each new batch of 
subscribers, I've decided it's time to step down.  It's primarily 
a problem of time, the same problem which earlier led to the 
formation of a moderator group.  It's been fun.  I'll still be 
here as an individual subscriber.  (But now I get to turn my 
filters ON!)  8-)


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