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I don't like it sharing my Synths to commercial organizations so no more PhotoSynth for me

Hello Community Members,

Shortly after I joined the Photosynth community I publicly asked the folks of MS on this platform what there goal is with Photosynth, it was free, it was open, it was not commercial but somehow I got the feeling that the hole free and non commercial concept didn't fit into the Microsoft organization.
Altough a lot of MS people must have read the question there was >> not a single official reaction <<.
Some other people answered with some speculations but again, not a single official response.....

Could it be that one of the biggest commercial companies in the world really did something for free for the benefit of all people on Earth without trying to make money out of it ?
If so how noble of them but somehow the thought didn't fit in my mind.

And now MS have made the PhotoSynth Library available for business partners.
So finally MS unveil the true purpose of PhotoSynth, money, money, money, its the same old song....

Sorry Microsoft, I am a professional and I don't like it when a business organization other then the one I own myself is making money from my work without a proper compensation or payment and that is why I removed all my Synths.
And just hosting a Photosynth Library and making the applications that are running PhotoSynth isn't a proper compensation for me....

Regards,

Wim Koornneef

Article:
http://www.travolution.co.uk/articles...
 
sad I’m not happy now I finally now the true goal of MS with PhotoSynth
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  • David Gedye EMPLOYEE
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    David Gedye, Official Rep, replied on May 08, 2009 18:30
    Wim -- I'm the group program manager for Photosynth at Microsoft, which means that I lead the engineering team, and have a strong voice on the business team.

    I fear that either the news coverage or our statements have been confusing, so let me try to set the record straight.

    Firstly, we have always intended to keep Photosynth use free for individuals and small business users. (I say "intend" because of course I can't make blanket statements that we would never charge people -- just that we have no plans at all in that direction.)

    Yesterday's announcement was aimed at medium to large businesses who want to use Photosynth to promote their real estate, hotels, tourist destinations, etc. etc. The model is that these businesses shoot their own photos, create their own Photosynths and embed them on their site. And yes -- they pay us if they need lots of storage space or cause us to incur lots of bandwidth charges for serving up the images. Why shouldn't they? Income from them can offset the operations cost we incur for all the free accounts.

    Also -- we don't currently generate revenue by selling ads on the Photosynth site, and I hope we can keep it that way. But if that's what it takes to keep the free service going, we'd consider it.

    It looks like you were also concerned was that a business might be making money by embedding YOUR synth on their site. Is that correct?

    Our solution to that is the Creative Commons choice that we offer when you create your synth. if you don't want other people (individuals or companies) to embed your synth, mark the photo rights as All Rights Reserved. If you want to allow only non-commercial entities to embed your synth, mark it as "Attribution -- Non Commercial". It's all under your control.

    (It is of course true that some people or companies may violate these licensing terms, but that's the same issue we all face when we publish individual photos, and others rip them in violation of the license terms under which they were posted.)

    I hope this helps you understand what we're doing with Photosynth.

    David Gedye.
    dgedye @ microsoft.com
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  • Wim.Koornneef
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    Wim.Koornneef replied on May 08, 2009 20:34
    Hello David ,

    Thanks for your fast response.

    I read your reply and I am not convinced.

    I think your explanation would be much more convincing if the default setting for the copyright was not set to "Creative Commons Attribute" but to "© All right reserved" and if it was possible to set a sticky preferences for it and to change the setting after the upload..

    Your headman mr. Quinlan said this in the interview:

    "Currently only public photos loaded into Photosynth system will be available for the synths."

    Read his words carefully and analyze the message and when you do you will get the message that it could happen that in the feature also unlisted photos could be accesable, but not "Currently" of course.

    More of mr. Quinlan:
    “The big barrier for taking from something like Flickr at the moment is respecting other people’s copyright,” he admitted."

    Again read it carefully and you will see that the man see other peoples copyright as a barrier, it is stated by his own words !
    And we both know that removing the "barrier" is an easy thing to do, just skip one or two lines in the pop up menu of the upload application (the copyright and the commercial line), change the small characters about the use of PhotoSynth and his "barrier" is down.

    To me the words from mr. Quinlan are not promising any good because now it is clear that PhotoSynth is pointed to making money instead of helping mankind to get a better understanding of each other as was very noble communicated in the initial briefing at the release of PhotoSynth.

    To me this a turn of 180 degree and your reply convinced me in this, I get the impression that is now a matter of "how can we reduce costs and get money out of it to keep the service free", I fully understand that PhotoSynth costs money but if MS thinks it is OK to use people's images to solve that issue then MS should think again...

    David thanks again, I think you are a good man and you have a fine team of developers but unfortunately the real power to decide what will happen to PhotoSynth is not in your hands.

    Best,
    Wim
     
    sad I’m not convinced
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  • Matthew Quinlan
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    Matthew Quinlan replied on May 08, 2009 23:00
    Dear Wim

    I’d like to follow up on my colleague David’s response and respond to your reaction to a comment of mine that you quoted. I hope that you take this as a well-intentioned effort to clarify what I think is an interpretation of what I said that was not intended.

    I did indeed answer “The big barrier for taking from something like Flickr at the moment is respecting other people’s copyright,” in response to a question about why we don’t just trawl the web to create Photosynths of any available content. My intent was not to bemoan the fact that we have this inconvenient issue of copyright that we need to find a way of circumventing, it was intended to communicate that the reason we do not do that is because we respect people’s copyright. If my choice of words in the interview implied something more sinister, then that is my failing.

    Photosynth is a community site for sharing content people feel comfortable sharing, under terms they feel comfortable sharing under. The new features make it easier than ever to keep your content private, in addition to the license choices David describes.

    I hope to allay your fears that there are ulterior motives at play here, and to restate that this week’s announcements are intended to provide opportunities for new uses of the technology, in addition to the free, open community use that we have sincerely tried to foster, and which we will continue to encourage because we love the technology and are genuinely excited by what the community finds it useful for.

    I would be dismayed if I felt that my words discouraged you from using and enjoying Photosynth.

    With regards

    Matthew Quinlan
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  • Wim.Koornneef
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    Wim.Koornneef replied on May 09, 2009 05:24
    Hello Matthew,

    Thank you very much for your efforts to communicate the intents of MS with PhotoSynth and to clarify the issue of the copyright.

    My decision to no longer use PhotoSynth is mainly based on the fact that MS have decided to mix Public and Commercial content in one PhotoSynth Library.

    Indeed people can choose for a full copyright protection as David explained and your words makes it clear that MS will respect those rights but the fact that you are mixing the content of commercial and non-commercial groups into one PhotoSynth Library gives me big concerns.

    The solution to all this is very simple, separate the images of both groups into 2 PhotoSynth Libraries, that way you can serve the business market with the exciting PhotoSynth technology and give the necessary protection to the open community group at the same time (by default, not as an option) and then all my issues as discussed are gone....

    When that will happen I will place my images immediately back on PhotoSynths server and then I will be a happy synther again but until then I will for sure no longer upload any synth.

    Regards,

    Wim
     
    indifferent I’m hoping that MS will create a seperate PhotoSynth Library for business users
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  • twosix
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    twosix replied on May 29, 2009 08:09
    Dear Wim,

    I won't be holding my breath

    Matthew & David...thank you for handling this professional whiner with class and non-emotionally based logic

    I have been a Mac since purchasing my first computer in 1994, the Apple LCII when I was 14 years old...I will never switch platforms, but with the onset of Photosynth, I have decided to purchased an inexpensive laptop PC b/c this is the most amazing tool I have seen in a long time

    God forbid Microsoft attempt to figure out a way to monetize this (without the inclusion of advertising) so that the service may continue and inevitably improve
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