• Remote Display - withdrawal

  A few people have written for an explanation as to why Remote Display was withdrawn.

  First, an apology to everyone who was upset by this decision. It was not something decided lightly but rather after much careful thought and consideration. Second, another apology for not putting this up sooner but after the decision was made, more important matters came up and it was too painful to write this at the time.

  There are three main reasons why it was withdrawn. In no particular order, they are:

  [1] Remote Display was released in an unstable form. From the feedback received, it is clear that Remote Display needed further testing and stabilisation. In hindsight, a public beta testing program should have been carried out. However, once the product was released, it is too late to then go back and start a beta testing program. Unfortunately for everyone, this was a lesson learned the hard way. :-(

  [2] Remote Display was not generating sufficient revenue. For the first few days after release, a few licenses were purchased but for the 2 weeks thereafter, no further licenses were purchased. Although it may seem that 2 weeks was not enough time, it became clear that Remote Display has a very limited market and would take a long time to recoup its development, which is not sustainable from a business point of view. Also, as you can imagine, the first reason also probably contributed to this second reason.

  [3] Remote Display apparently / allegedly infringes a software-only patent. From a business perspective, the usual thing to do is to pay a licensing fee for use of the patent and let the lawyers sort out the details. From a personal / moral perspective, it is something that cannot be agreed to because, like many other software developers, our view is that software-only patents actually discourage software development and innovation: instead of competing on the merits of the product, an unfair burden is placed on developers and, in effect, they are penalised for creating useful products. Anyway, with a patent infringement allegation, there are only a few things that can be done from a legal point of view: (a) modify the product so that the patent is not infringed, (b) pay the licensing fees demanded, or (c) withdraw the product.

  After careful consideration of all of these three factors, it has been decided to withdraw Remote Display. It may be later modified to avoid [3] but no guarantee of that can be given and no timeframe can be given. You can probably imagine that even if Remote Display were modified, another patent infringement allegation may later be made, and the whole cycle starts again, which is something not to look forward to.

  In the meantime, it's back to contracting work followed by employment of some kind. If spare time can be found, there are other ideas and projects that will be developed but they do not have any relationship to Remote Display.

  Once again, apologies for the chaos and trouble this has caused.

  The Remote Display developers. July 31, 2007.

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