[John Buck]

Chris
Did you fix your volume 2 download? I checked with Apple and source file is OK
John

[John Buck]

ok thanks for the feedback. i have not heard this error before. try deleting the book off your iPad and then letting it re-sync to iTunes, it will re-download (if there’s such a word). i found that fixed a glitch i had with ibooks, but i will report the fault you experienced to the aggregator/publisher none the less.

[John Buck]

Chris
Thanks for the positive reply
I would love to add your Montage stories to the mix. Please contact me via email
John

[John Buck]

FWIW
One of the reasons I started writing the book “Timeline” was that I thought I knew stuff, and as it turns out I didn’t know half. After four years of research I learnt that I could no longer get away with assuming I knew everything, and that learning is a constant.

The Habermans and their company Lex Computer and Management acquired the Montage patents at an auction when the original Montage (created by Ron Barker and Chester Schuler) closed its doors.

The US Patent 4538188 is one of the inventions made by Barker, Schuler and their team prior to the 1984 NAB release of the Montage editing system. 4538188 covers the use of picture icons – or picons – to display images for editors. The method was created to get around the problem that computer hardware of the era couldn’t play all of the frames of rushes video, so the engineers devised a way to show still frames of the first and last frame of a sequence/clip. Mr Schuler also told me that by creating this method, and crafting patents to cover it, the Montage company became a more valuable proposition for investors.

The general rule with US Patents (and their IP) is that they are enforceable for 17/20 years depending on filing or issue date. 4538188’s filing date is Dec 22, 1982 and issue date is Aug 27, 1985. The lapse dates of this patent alone seems to go beyond the dates of Apple’s acquisition of the Final Cut code from Macromedia.

To confirm this, I spoke with the Macromedia product manger, and engineering manager for Final Cut at the time.

So Apple would have had to contend with a law suit from Lex Computer and Management if they included picons in Final Cut without a licence, and the fees were a consideration before Apple decided to pay the reported $10m. In fact the Haberman family successfully defended the Montage patents unit at least Dec 2003.

Sure 1999 seems too late for the Montage patents to be still in play, but in play they were. IMHO.

John Buck
timelinebook.tumblr.com

Lawsuit link
https://www.ll.georgetown.edu/federal/judicial/fed/opinions/01opinions/01-1320.html
Patent link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_of_patent_in_the_United_States
Patent filing link
https://www.google.com/patents?id=hCM1AAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=montage+ba+rker+schuler&hl=en&ei=ymXATq74CtC0iQecp7HtBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false