1. Does Internet Pictures Corporation (iPIX) have an agreement with Minds-Eye-View, Inc. (owner of the Pictosphere™ trade name)? Yes. iPIX has an agreement with Minds-Eye-View, Inc., which includes a license under Ford Oxaal's patents in spherical photography. iPIX has paid for its license with cash. 2. If I buy a Pictosphere™ Click Away™ software license, do I also need a license from iPIX? No, you do not need a license from iPIX to use the Pictosphere™ Click Away™ software. Ford Oxaal has been recognized as the original creator and developer of the essential technology for spherical photography. A Pictosphere™ Click Away™ software license also includes a license under Ford Oxaal's patents. With Click Away™ you have the highest level of immunity possible from a patent lawsuit by iPIX, anywhere in the world, in the area of spherical photography. 3. If I build a business in the United States which uses fisheye lenses and third party camera mounting equipment to shoot spherical panoramas, and which uses Click Away™ to build and publish spherical panoramas to the web or other computer readable media, am I covered under a Pictosphere™ Click Away™ software license? Yes. With a Pictosphere™ Click Away™ software license, you have as much protection in the area of spherical photography as iPIX has. 4. If I build a business in the United States which uses fisheye lenses and third party camera mounting equipment to shoot spherical panoramas, and uses neither Click Away™ nor iPIX to build and publish spherical panoramas to the web, am I exposed to patent lawsuits from third parties. Yes. Although we are in the process of negotiating licenses with other software vendors who desire to get in, or remain in, the spherical photography software business, until you see a link on the Pictosphere™ website to that product, it is not licensed and your business is at risk. 5. What if I just use freeware, like Helmut Dersch's PT toolset, where no profits are being made, and the tools might be reasonably considered only useful for folks with a fairly high degree of computer knowledge otherwise known as geeks and hackers (in the non-perjorative sense of the terms)? We believe Helmut Dersch has made a non-profit contribution to the field of spherical photography, as have many of those who use his software. We plan no legal action in enforcing our patents against Dr. Dersch, nor against non-profit users of his software in the United States. While this is our policy, it should be clearly understood that we believe the "PT" suite of software tools uses technology encompassed by our patents, and that if you are using the tools commercially in the United States, you need to purchase the appropriate Pictosphere™ license (e.g., Click Away™) in fairness to us. We have invested considerable resources and many years to open up the spherical industry commercially to a legal, non-click-fee solution, and we believe this will benefit everyone in the industry. Furthermore, you need to be aware that other than for PT-Viewer, you may have third party exposure if you are using the "PT" tools commercially, (although it may not be worth it for someone to prove in court whose tools you are really using). We are distributing PT-Viewer under the GNU license, alongside our product. Because, as has been previously stated, a Pictosphere™ Click Away™ software license includes a license to Ford Oxaal's patents, and because Ford Oxaal's patents alone, so far as we know, cover PT-Viewer, Click Away™ users are free to use PT-Viewer. 6. Are there limitations in the Pictosphere™ Click Away™ license in terms of how many spherical panoramas I can produce and publish to the web or other computer readable media? There are no limitations on the number of spherical panoramas you can produce. There are limitations on the number of spherical panoramas you can publish per month. The thrust of the Pictosphere™ Click Away™ license is to give commercial photographers a reasonable business footing in the area of spherical photography. The Pictosphere™ Click Away™ license is not intended for use as a blanket publication license. If you publish more than 500 pictos per month to your website or other computer readable media, you need to obtain a Pictosphere™ Enterprise License by contacting us at enterprise@pictosphere.com. If all you do is produce pictos for clients, you are completely covered under the Pictosphere™ Click Away™ license. 7. Are there time limitations on the Pictosphere™ Click Away™ license? That is, does the Pictosphere™ Click Away™ license expire? No. There is currently no expiration to the Pictosphere™ Click Away™ license. Currently, you buy once, use forever. Please note, after the revision number on the software reaches 1.0, there may, or may not be a change in the license to include an expiration period. In any case, for pre 1.0 software, the license never expires as part of an incentive to get customers early on. That means you can commercially use the software indefinitely, which you download within your software subscription period. For pre 1.0 customers, that software subscription period is two years from date of purchase, providing a further incentive to jump on the Pictosphere™ bandwagon early on. Our goal is to evolve Click Away™ software from the current beta level to best in class within the pre 1.0 customers' two year subscription period. For 1.0 customers and beyond, the subscription period will be reduced to one year from date of purchase. 8. Why does Click Away™ put a message authentication code (MAC) in its output headers? First, what is a MAC? It is a way to tell that a validly licensed version of Click Away™ has output full-surround imagery on the web. Second, why is it there? This is for two reasons. First, it lets us determine if our code, which is not node-locked to particular hardware, is being copied illegally. Second, it protects our licensees from suits by third parties. If the MAC is there, then there is little question that a validly licensed version of Click Away™ output the data. 9. If I touch up Click Away™ output in third party software such as Gimp or Photoshop, won't that erase the MAC? Maybe. So the best thing to do after touch up in third party software, is re-import the imagery to Click Away™, and output it again. No image degradation will take place, and the MAC will be re-inserted. Copyright © 2002, 2003 Minds-Eye-View, Inc. All Rights Reserved