A Sense of Entitlement
Another thing we’ve heard: “Send me the dome masters. I’ll make a movie for my current system; then if I ever change fulldome systems, or upgrade to something more capable, I can just re-encode a new movie at a higher resolution, or slice it differently, or whatever.”
Whoa, Nellie — not so fast there.
You know, when Microsoft licenses you Windows, or Apple licenses an app to use on your device, you get the product in the form they’ve licensed. You don’t get their source code so you can make your own version, or copy it onto other systems. And it’s not future-proofed. If you get new hardware requiring new software, you have to pay for another license.
It’s the same with fulldome shows. Most often, our shows are licensed as “one install on one system”. You simply play the movie we provide on your system; the license is our permission for you to do that.
Yes, we do offer special discounted prices for institutions upgrading their hardware and wanting to get higher-resolution movies to show on them. And that’s part of how we try to make a living, by providing upgraded movies to sell customers for showing on their upgraded systems. I daresay we’re not the only company that does this.
Bottom line: we’re the copyright holders of our works. Copyright means that we’re the only ones who have the right to copy our works (or authorize copies to be made).
There is nothing in our show license that permits the end-user to obtain our originals, for whatever purpose. Dome masters are simply not part of the license we’re selling.
Page 1 – Masters of the Dome Masters
Page 2 – But…
Page 3 – The Reasons for Not Shipping Frames
Page 4 – It’s the hardware
Page 5 – A Sense of Entitlement
Page 6 – Don’t panic!
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