iPix

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139736-c,trojanhorses/article.html

The GeoCities sites are infected with malicious JavaScript code that redirects the user's browser to secondary URLs hosted in Turkey, Ferguson said. The Turkish URLs, meanwhile, try to persuade the user to download a new codec that's supposedly necessary to view images on the GeoCities sites. According to Trend Micro's analysis, the bogus codec -- which claims to be for the 360-degree IPIX format -- is actually an identity- and information-stealing piece of malware

Many of us who use iPIX have never understood why users of other virtual image software hate iPIX so much. Many of those users are rejoicing in the demise of iPIX Corporation.

The Patent Itself
The anger was always centered on the patent of a 2 fisheye capture method. That iPIX was granted the patent isn’t in dispute, it was granted by the US Patent Office. Many think it should not have been granted, but of those who have posted opinions on the ‘Net, none that I’ve read said they were attorneys, let alone patent attorneys.

Here's an offer from EasyPano for IPIX photographers: (no endorsement intended....)
Special offer for IPIX Users

Easypano, developer of Panoweaver and Tourweaver, would like to offer 20% discount to former IPIX users to purchase Easypano software.

If you are an IPIX user, usually you don’t need to buy new hardware if you use Panoweaver because Panoweaver can stitch 2 or 3 circular images, 4 (4+T) drum images as well as 6 (6+T+B) full frame images perfectly within several minutes.
Panorama can be published as both Java applet and QuickTime formats.
With Tourweaver, you are able to make several panoramas into a wonderful virtual tour and even upload to tour hosting websites such as Realtors.com.

I was checking out an old copy of National Geographic about the Caves of Oman with
photos by Steve Alvarez. The images were incredible, and the climbing/descending
required to investigate the caves was breath taking. (You won't find me on a rope
500 feet up in the air!) The online component to the story:
http://nationalgeograpic.com/ngm/0304
contains some IPIX images of the caves. Now that IPIX is gone
what will happen to these images, and the whole world of IPIX
images produced in the past several years? Is it possible to convert them?
Who will convert them?

Scott Highton gives us a well-reasoned [as usual Scott :) ] post to the Apple QuickTime-VR email list, regarding his thoughts on the recent iPix demise and possible developments concerning what-this-means for related patents and us as QT/VR developers.

Scott also rightly suggests that this should be an important topic of discussion amongst VR photographers and developers. Here, or more properly in the forums, could be a good place to start.