Every morning when I check my email I can be sure to read up to a dozen requests and outright demands for any given piece of software of mine that happens to be not publicly available. In fact some people don’t stop there and actually expect the source-code as a topping on their little cake.
It usually goes a little something like this:
BatMan12: “I can haz celulights and all your shaders?”
To which I briefly but politely reply: “Celulight is not publicly available.”
BatMan12: “But iz on intarwebs, give it to me!”
(Yes, apparently many people on the internet in fact do type in lolcat.)
Now I do understand the general excitement and the craving for the software — that’s why I programmed it in the first place.
But when I browse the web and come across something interesting for which there appears to be no download link, my first thought isn’t: “Give it to me anyway.”
Apparently many people have the expectation that if it’s on the internet, they can have it — FOR FREEEE!!1!. Maybe the abundance of open source and free software has spoiled people into this pattern of thought.
So do they expect the same when an artist posts his work to his personal portfolio? Do they call up ILM and tell them to hand over their new proprietary relighting tool? I don’t know, but I’m starting to assume the answer is: Yes.
So why isn’t all of my software publicly available, you ask? Well, a couple of reasons for that, really:
- Most of my tools are developed and used in our animation studio, making it proprietary software that I simply can’t release on legal grounds.
- Other pieces of software, some shaders in particular, aren’t of release quality: That is to say they work fine for me and anyone I’ve given a brief introduction, but the average user would have a hard time producing anything worthwhile with them due to a lack of refinement and documentation rightfully expected from release software.
- The occasional piece I would in fact very much like to offer for purchase to the general public, but for personal reasons at this point in time I just cannot make it happen. Not that I believe BatMan12 would be particularly interested in purchasing any of my stuff anyway…
Now I’m happy to share Normality, a production-quality tool, with the CG community and I help out wherever I can… but seriously people, outright demanding my other stuff isn’t going to compel me to release anything at all in the future.
It’s really not that hard and I don’t think it’s just a flaw in my site’s design: Unless there is a prominent download link displayed right next to the software, it simply is not publicly available..
Now who wants to bet this rant won’t change a thing…?
