Friday, August 1, 2003

Recently Scott Highton reported that he was contacted by Joe Ortiz of iPIX, who was curious what the reaction in the VR community was to iPIX's lawsuit against Mind's Eye View. Scott says: "I told Joe I hadn't heard from more than a few individuals yet, but that I had heard some concern about a renewed impression of stifling industry innovation through aggressive legal tactics, such as that perceived earlier around their actions against Infinite Pictures, Helmut Dersch, etc.). Over the last 2-3 years, iPIX has worked hard to overcome those perceptions." Now comes word that iPIX has dropped their motion for a preliminary injunction against MEV. I do not know the particulars of these legal actions, but I wonder if Scott (and other's) response had anything to do with the withdrawal of the motion for preliminary injunction. Scott is a well-respected VR photographer and I think his opinion counts for a lot. Often a company's culture and behavior is a reflection of the CEO. I think it is possible that iPIX is behaving differently because they have a different CEO (Don Strickland) at the helm than when they pursued legal moves against Helmut Dersch. The fact that they seem interested in what VR photographers think is a good sign, for the vitality of the VR marketplace depends in part on the healthy (and fair) competition between all VR vendors. Footnote: Scott gave me permission to quote him here 6:30:08 AM

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